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WILLIS PEYTON’S 
INHERITANCE. 


Kljt Stors of a Claim. 


EMILY L^SHERWOOD. 


ClAA-C«.0<>SXt.«U, 


/ 


UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

30 West Street. 

1889. 


^pvOFCO/v^ 
_s<2. c.oPvR/GH/ 

DEC 181889 

BOSTON; 




VV ' 4 


Copyright 1889. 

By Universalist Publishing House. 


\ 

C. J. PETERS & SON, 

. ‘ Typographers and Electrotypers, 

145 High Street, Boston. 



‘HE author of this little book only aims 


to point a moral, by depicting one of the 
many striking phases of social life in Washington, 
and its influence upon character. 

She trusts the reader will look with a degree 
of indulgence upon this her first book ; and not be 
uninterested in the fortunes of a hero who is the 
victim of an Inheritance. 


November. 1889. 


E. L. S. 



CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Sunset 7 

IT. Changes 22 

III. House-hunting in the City . . 35 

IV. Hew Scenes 44 

V. A Wedding 60 

VI. A Discovery 74 

VII. Complexities 91 

VIII. Mother and Son 105 

IX. Willis and his Triumph . . . 120 

X. A Claim on its Travels . . . 134 

XL Claude and Jessie 151 

XII. Claude an Explorer 163 

XIII. The Old Professor turns Match- 

maker 170 

XIV. An Excursion, and what Came 

OF IT 175 

XV. Claude in Peril . . .^ . . . 187 

XVI. Claude’s Mother and Jessie. . 198 

XVII. A Little Eespite 206 

XVIII. A Surprise 217 

XIX. Deep Waters 225 

XX. Wedding Bells ....... 234 



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WILLIS PEYTON’S INHERITANCE. 


CHAPTER I. 

SUNSET. 

BOUT fifteen years ago, in an old 



l \ country house of Virginia, one glori- 
ous evening in June, one sister said to 
another, Why, Jessie, what are you going 
to do with all those roses V for the young 
girl thus addressed had just come in from 
the old and neglected garden with apron 
and arms full of roses, — roses white, roses 
red, roses light, and roses dark, but all most 
delicious in odor, — she herself, a fair blonde, 
dressed in pale blue, the rarest and sweetest 
rose of them all. 

Georgia, I am going to decorate the 
house with them. What is the use of all 
this loveliness being ^ wasted on the desert 
air ’ out there ? They are my favorite 
flower, and I just revel in their sweetness. 


8 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

They will never be missed from the garden. 
It seems to me I never saw so many fine 
varieties, so many blossoms at one time 
before. Come, help me arrange them in 
those old-fashioned Bohemian vases in the 
parlor. Put the deep crimson ones in the 
pale blue vases, and I will put these amber- 
tinted teas into the wine-colored ones.” 

How sweet they are ! ” said Georgia. 

A very fine-looking young fellow, nearly 
six feet tall, popped his handsome brown 
head up from among a pile of sofa pillows, 
where he was lazily lolling, and put in his 
masculine oar. 

Seems to me, 

' By the pricking of my thumbs, 

Somebody courting this way comes.^ 

Expecting a call from that latest conquest 
of yours. Sis ? I mean the one who is so 
artistically cross-eyed, so systematically 
knock-kneed. Girls do not usually deco- 
rate the house for their brothers’ edification, 
do they?” 


SUNSET. 


9 


J ust as though I would look twice at 
that cross-eyed old fellow, even if he pre- 
sumed to ^ admire ’ me, which he never did. 
He comes to ^ renew his acquaintance with 
papa.' You needn’t laugh, and make fun 
of his legs because his eyes happen to be 
crooked. He walks as gracefully as you 
do ; and, if he was a little more polished, 
and hadn’t such a don’t-care air about him, 
and dressed a little more stylishly, I believe 
he would be quite tolerable, for he is a 
gentleman and well educated.” 

Oh, he would, would he ? ” 

You’d better look out. Will, or through 
pity Jess will come to loving that delectable 
fellow,” said Georgia, who also had an eye for 
the ridiculous, in people as well as things. 

I did not know,” resumed Willis, that 
you had such a keen vision as to the possi- 
bilities in a fellow, Jess, as you display. 
If we only knew what you girls thought 
of us, what might we not become under 
judicious tutelage ! There would be such 
a polishing up of rough material into 


10 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

stones of grace and beauty as would edify 
admiring nations, especially the aboriginal 
ones, when they come to interview the 
Great White Father. We civilized mor- 
tals would spare no expense on powder 
for our hair, or ruffles for our immaculate 
linen. We’d do all this, and more, for one 
approving smile from our adorable ^She,’ 
whoever she might be.” 

Will,” said Georgia, with mock severity, 
the behavior of ^ brothers ’ in the pres- 
ence of their sisters is of such a nature 
as to give them a poor opinion of very 
young men ; that is, if all brothers are like 
ours, forever making fun at their expense, 
turning all their beaux and their best 
thoughts into ridicule.” 

Qhy bother! it does not affect your 
appetite, my sweet little spitfire. Now 
Jess takes all my remarks as a woman 
should, with becoming meekness. When 
she cannot follow my soarings, she waits 
for me to come down to earth again, near 
her comprehension.” 


SUNSET. 


11 


There ! that will do. When you get to 
lauding your superiority, and your capa- 
bility of ^ soaring,’ I just feel like pulling 
your attenuated ears.” 

^^Well, that will do. You needn’t pull 
my head quite off in your wrath.” 

Oh,” cried Jessie, I’ve run a thorn 
into my thumb. Please to pull it out. 
Will; it hurts so.” 

I’ve a mind to let it stay, to teach you 
respect for my superior opinions.” 

Wait until you show us more evidence 
of your superiority. I will pull your 
other ear if you do not pull that thorn 
out.” 

^ No rose without its thorn.’ ” 

Do come. Will. You’re perfectly lovely, 
— ^ civilization’s culminating flower^^f you 
will perform this piece of surgery for me.” 

^^Yes, I will. Give me that digit that 
claims to be a ^ thumb.’ If you were my 
^sweetheart,’ as in the play, I would be 
willing to pull thorns out of, and caress 
that poor little thumbkin all day for the 


12 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

mere pleasure of looking at such pretty 
dimpled hands.” 

^^It’s well you’re not. No doubt you 
would be just such a spoon. But it is 
to be hoped that I should have better 
sense.” 

Oh, yes, doubtless you would. The 
girl, however, in the play never runs away. 
You might, being such a cross ^ old thing.’ 
Is it out now ? ” 

Yes, thank you.” 

Children, why are you always pre- 
tending to be quarrelling?” said a voice 
from the piazza through the open window. 

These girls of yours, papa, require a 
great deal of lecturing from me ; but I am 
afraid they do not appreciate their advan- 
tages.” 

Well, Willis, my son,” said Judge Pey- 
ton, come out on the gallery with me. I 
wish to have a little talk with you about 
my claim against the Government. You 
ought to understand all about it in case 
anything should happen to me. It seems 


SUNSET. 


13 


to me that I never saw Washington look 
finer than it does this June evening in the 
afterglow of the setting sun. The Capitol 
dome glistens like a globe of fire suspended 
in mid-air. I feel a thrill of patriotic pride 
whenever I see it, even if it does surmount 
the temple of a Government that, with its 
mailed hand, has laid waste my acres, dis- 
persed my servants, and plunged me into 
the depths of poverty. 

Time, my son, rectifies all things. My 
loyalty is unquestionable, even if you did, 
with the impetuosity of youth, espouse the 
^ lost cause,’ and throw your fortunes into 
the fate of your State. I do not blame 
you, son, though it grieved me sore : the 
only thing you ever did to cause me one 
throb of pain. But it is past. I do not 
regret that I was called upon to sacrifice 
for the perpetuation of the union of these 
States, as their interests are, and always 
will be, identical. Yet I have a good and 
justifiable claim against the Government. 
I did not murmur when it took everything 


14 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

as a ^ military necessity.’ I had faith that 
it would fully compensate its loyal citizens 
for their sacrifices.” 

^^You have filed your claim, have you, 
father?” queried the young man. 

Yes, it is in good hands, — Killgore 
and Lattimere are among the very best of 
agents. I have every confidence in their 
ability. My affidavits are all in, and every- 
thing proved up, so that should I die 
to-morrow, you would have no trouble 
about it. Should anything happen to me, 
my son, I tnisir you would carry out my 
wishes to the letter. Your sisters should 
be restored to the station and advantages 
to which they were born. Not that I 
think there is any immediate danger, but 
there is danger always to a man of my 
age and habits ; and I like to feel that all 
my business affairs are in such shape that 
you could carry them on to a happy issue 
without me ; although I can’t see just why 
I am talking so, for I never felt better in 
my life, or enjoyed my dinner more.” 


SUNSET. 


15 


Well, father, I only hope you may live 
to see your old homestead re-established, 
if not in its original grandeur, in some 
degree of comfort. Our fields do look 
forlorn enough now, having been ploughed 
over by the Union army for the past few 
years as a camping-ground, all on account of 
its nearness to Munson’s Hill, the highest 
point of land this side of the Blue Ridge, 
and commanding a full sweep of the Capitol. 
Of course there was nothing for the Union 
forces to do but literally confiscate and 
hold these heights, lest we Johnny Rebs 
get possession and shell the city. Such 
are the exigencies of war ! ” 

^^My son, we must let bygones be by- 
gones. I do not wish to get so near in 
our talk to the dividing line of our politi- 
cal opinions. We can, now that the war 
is over, bear and forbear, and work together 
^ to rehabilitate our homestead. Your sisters 
will soon be young women; and I own, 
when I look at my scrubby fields of oak 
that have sprung up since my forests were 


16 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

felled, I do feel concerned as to how I am 
to give them the opportunities for a higher 
education, and something akin to the privi- 
leges of their previous station.” 

Don’t worry, father, I shall soon gradu- 
ate from good old Columbian Law School ; 
and I feel it in my degenerate, ^ rebel ’ 
bones, that I shall do you honor, raise the 
family fortunes, and lift us all out of 
this slough of despond, even if your claim 
should never be allowed.” 

Well, well, I am glad that you can 
jest about it. It is youth’s prerogative to 
work under the banner of Hope. Without 
her inspiration, nothing was ever accom- 
plished. If you, son, inherit any of the 
genius of the Randolphs, your mother’s 
ancestors, you will have ^ wit ’ enough to 
lift not only us but yourself to some niche 
of honor. You look like her ! You look 
like her ! She was both brilliant and 
beautiful in her youth : a most charming 
woman. It is the joy of my life that I 
had her companionship for even a little 


SUNSET. 


17 


while. I think better of all women for 
her sake than I should had I not known 
her. I can conceive that any good thing 
is possible to the son of such a mother. 
But — she is gone ; she cannot return to 
us. We can only hope to go to her. 
When ? ah, when ? ” 

His talk had dropped into soliloquy, and 
there was something in its tone — the old 
man’s tender reverence for the wife of his 
youth — that touched Willis, especially as it 
was his mother, and not the mother of the 
sisters, of whom he was speaking, although 
she too was gone.” He rose to his feet 
to cover his emotion, and rapidly paced up 
and down the long gallery, two stories 
high, running its length across the double 
white house, where the wide central hall 
opened upon it, — a house on Munson’s 
Heights in Virginia, opposite the city of 
Washington. 

You need not look for it in your drives 
that way, since the old mansion fell into 
a hopeless decline during the war, having 


18 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

been constantly occupied by some general 
or other as headquarters for himself and 
staff. Those who know from observation 
anything of military occupancy, know how 
devastating and destructive to property 
that is, as many a fine old mansion house 
can be seen to this day, being scarcely fit 
to live in, yet too good to destroy, or its 
owner too poor to replace it by even a less 
pretentious dwelling-place. 

Old Mr. Peyton, or, as his neighbors 
styled him. Judge Peyton (he having been 
a magistrate and justice of the peace before 
the war), was a tall, finely formed gentle- 
man, rather full in figure, and in some atti- 
tudes greatly resembling Benjamin Frank- 
lin. His hair was abundant, but white 
as snow, giving him a very distinguished 
appearance. He was, as so many Virginians 
are who have closely intermarried, very 
near-sighted. In manners he was suave 
and courteous, but coldly so, and some- 
what imperious to his inferiors, although 
always polite, even in command. His 


SUNSET. 


19 


voice was noticeable for having a caress- 
ing cadence, especially when addressing 
women. It was so perfectly natural that it 
never gave offence. 

The old man turned, with fond eyes, to 
look after his handsome boy as he paced 
back and forth, and then suddenly, without 
sigh or sound, his head fell against the 
tall back of the splint chair in which he 
sat, and he was still, very still. He had 
gone to the wife of his youth. 

Willis, turning about on his return 
promenade, was struck by his father s 
noble, statuesque attitude, for no change 
had touched his countenance as yet. He 
seemed to be gazing out over the beautiful, 
glancing, dancing waters of the lordly 
Potomac. Or was he admiring the glow 
of sunset fires reflected from the crystals 
in the dome of the Capitol, or church 
spires and lofty buildihgs, where the dying 
day seemed still to fondly linger ? 

^^It is beautiful, isn’t it, father?” the 
young man questioned, for he knew the 


20 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

old man’s almost boyish admiration for 
the view of this, even then, the loveliest of 
American cities, with heaven’s rich chrism 
upon it. 

He waited a moment, but there came no 
reply. A sudden thrill of the possible shot 
through his heart. Willis went swiftly to 
him, and put his hand upon his forehead ; 
and, as the truth struck home with a shock, 
he gave a sharp cry. His grand old father 
had gone home at sunset without warning. 
He knew his danger, without a physician 
to tell him ; he had been told he might 
die at any time but even he, the dear old 
man, did not think it would be so soon. 

Willis’s cry aroused the house. An old 
Aunty” and Uncle,” too old to ^^run 
away,” came hobbling^ round from the back 
buildings, and the two young sisters from 
within. 

With such sharp, swift sorrows, strangers’ 
eyes have no place. Bereavements like 
this come unbidden, unexpected, to many 
households, turning numerous lives straight 


SUNSET. 


21 


out of old and well-trodden paths, into new 
and untried ones, but such as were carved 
out by destiny or Providence, as you view 
it from a heathen or a Christian standpoint. 

This sudden death was at the beginning 
of the threads to be woven into this story. 
It is the only event of the old regime ” 
we have to record, for these young people, 
born near the close of the old social dis- 
pensation of the South, were also born into 
an inheritance of changed institutions and 
manners from those their parents knew. 

Circumstances are powerful things when 
sent by God’s swift angels. There is no 
evading them, bring they joy or sorrow. 
These are not the lesser circumstances with 
which we have the shaping hand, but the 
great deeps of experience which run under 
outward things. There is only one way to 
meet them : to bow meekly to the chasten- 
ing hand of the Father, in the hope that 
it is best they come, since it is His will. 


CHAPTER II. 


CHANGES, 


HE September rains had set in, and the 



JL Peyton girls were indulging in the first 
fire of the season. It was in a southeast^ 
room, overlooking the Potomac River on 
the east, and to the northwest Fairfax Sem- 
inary and the church spires, and the ship- 
ping anchored at the dilapidated wharves 
of Alexandria. The room was called the | 
library ” to distinguish it from its compan- 
ion ^Hhe parlor,’’ the two rooms being sepa- 
rated by wide folding doors that swung 
open like great white leaves. 

Books there were, old-fashioned classics, 
— Plutarch’s Lives,” Rollin’ s histories, 
Jane Porter’s novels, and a galaxy of other 
books more dear to the older generation 
than to this, although as models in literary 
style they still hold their own proudly, 


CHANGES. 


23 


even in their antiquated expressions where 
flowers of rhetoric bloom beside words and 
descriptions of a coarseness that would not 
now be marketable or tolerated in polite 
society. 

The late Judge Peyton had been edu- 
cated at William and Mary College, and 
always retained his scholarly tastes ; and, 
up to the last, he stood by the standards 
set up by LittelVs Living Age or The 
Edinburgh Review. He looked upon that 
presumptuous literary magazine. The Atlan- 
tic, with suspicion amounting to aversion ; 
therefore the library was, outside of 
Cooper s novels and Stevens's travels, quite 
antiquated. But, such as it was, it was the 
most homelike, cosiest room in the house, 
especially since the judge's demise, when 
a kind of gloom seemed to descend and 
brood over the place, chilling the two lonely 
girls, who had matured from girlhood to 
womanhood in the past few months, so 
deeply does sorrow write its lines of char- 
acter even upon the young. 


24 WILLIS Peyton's inheritance. 

They had been so lonely. They had not 
missed their mother half so much, for she 
had been an invalid for years, while they 
were papa’s pets and companions, his jeal- 
ously cherished idols during and since the 
w^r. Oh, how they did miss him ! Willis 
was one of the best of brothers, but he 
had to be out and away on business for 
hours or days, and they had no one to talk 
to, and nothing much to do. They had 
read the library through, histories and all, 
and they were live young things craving 
something that would take them farther 
away from their grief. Just now they were 
sitting over the open wood fire, indulging 
in air-castles as a diversion. 

“ Georgia, wouldn’t you like to get away 
from this old place, and have an adventure 
of some sort ? ” said Jessie, who was of an 
imaginative temperament. 

^^Yes, I should. I do hope Willis will 
find some one to take this place ofi our 
hands, that we may go into the city for the 
winter ; at least, while he is cramming for 


CHANGES. 


25 


his legal diploma. Otherwise^ we shall have 
to spend most of our days alone, for he 
never could wade, I mean ride, through the 
Virginia mud daily; and when it is cold 
enough to freeze it, he would catch his 
death.” 

You know we can’t sell the place for 
two reasons : we are not of legal age, at 
least you are not, Georgia, and it is for our 
interest to keep it until papa’s claim is 
paid.” 

I wonder,” said Georgia, when it will 
be. Dear knows we need it enough. I 
think if I had a hundred dollars or so to 
go shopping with, as mamma used to have, 
my head would be completely turned. Say, 
Jess, don’t you envy Will ? He will soon 
have a profession, and can earn money to 
buy what he wants. I just wish girls 
could do that way.” 

0 Georgia, how you talk ! A girl loses 
caste who does anything for a living, unless 
it is in literature or painting or something 
of that sort.” 


26 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

I don’t see why they should. It’s very 
unfair when girls need money so much as 
we do. Why, if I knew enough, I would 
teach a school or do anything.” 

There is no doubt you know enough, 
as far as it goes, Georgia, for even a school- 
ma’am’s needs, but you never could do it, 
never ! ” 

^^Well, if Will wasn’t such a ^ rebel ’ 
one of us might get into a Government 
department, as so many Northern girls are 
doing. It looks as though they had an 
easy time, going to the office at 9 a.m., 
and out at 4 p.m., and drawing seventy-five 
dollars a month.” 

Pshaw, Georgia, what ails you ? You 
know Will would never hear of such a 
thing if one of us could get it, or of 
teaching either.” 

‘‘Well, you may be sure if we get into 
the city I shall find something to do that 
even Will cannot object to, to earn money. 
By and by he will be wanting to settle for 
himself. You know he loves Kate Ker- 


CHANGES. 


27 


dolph now, and even if papa’s claim was 
paid, it wouldn’t keep us long.” 

Who knows,” said Jessie, but that we 
may find a knight come riding by, as in 
the story books, to snatch us away from 
poverty, and put us alongside the happy 
folks who have everything merely for 
wishing ? ” 

If beauty can do it, Jess, you will meet 
your fate as sure as we go to the city.” 

I wish I may, and hope he will not be 
forever coming,” she returned gayly. 

There’s Will, now,” said Georgia ; and 
both sistets rose to meet him in the hall. 

Come in here out of the rain, and warm 
by our first fire. Are you drowned ? If 
so, you’d better change your clothes at 
once. We are so glad you’ve come. Will. 
This has been such a lonesome, dismal sort 
of day that we thought we’d have a fire, 
and have been sitting over it building air- 
castles, and ^ bewailing our fate ’ in turn.” 

^^Well, girls, what do you think I’ve 
done to-day ? Give a guess.” 


28 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Proposed to Kate, and been rejected.” 

Not much ! If I had, I would not be 
likely to ask you to guess the sum of my 
misery, would I ? It’s something else, 
girls.” 

^^What is it? Don’t keep us in sus- 
pense.” 

“ Let’s have supper, first. I am as 
hungry as a bear. I can tell you while 
we eat.” 

^^I will run and see if Aunt Chloe is 
ready,” said Georgia, who possessed the 
housewifely turn. She promised us hot 
waffies, and it is time that they were on.” 

Presently a bell tinkled with a silvery 
sound, and they each seized Will by an 
arm, and walked out with a marching step. 

Jessie took her place behind the silver 
cofiee-urn that was steeping over an alco- 
hol brazier, and Georgia at the right hand. 
Will at the head. 

Aunt Chloe came in, with a blue and 
yellow handkerchief tied on her head tur- 
ban fashion, and in her fat hands a plate 


CHANGES. 


29 


of smoking waffles ; an omelet as light as 
a puff, flanked by roasted sweet potatoes-; 
a corn pone, brown and crusty ; while 
honey in a glass bowl completed quite an 
appetizing array of dishes, which, served 
on old, gilt-banded chinaware, with cut- 
glass and silver of the style of a hundred 
years ago, was, as Will declared, a supper 
fit for a king.'* 

I tell you, girls, I shall hate to leave 
this cosey old place.” 

Leave it ! ” chimed in both sisters. 

^^Yes, for I have found a tenant, — a 
Northerner who wants to try Virginia a 
while before he buys ; and, as he wants it 
at once, or as soon as he can get it, and 
I must be away from you so much on 
account of my lectures, I .think we had 
better let him have it, and we can take a 
small house or rooms in Washington.” 

How refreshingly you say ^ we,’ Will. 
Just as though you hadn’t already settled 
the whole thing.” 

Of course ; I had to. You know with 


30 WILLIS peytok’s ikheeitance. 


a man it is now or never; and as he 
agreed to the price, I was glad enough to 
get it off my hands. I can’t be a farmer 
and a lawyer too. And we must have 
something to depend on. There are still 
a few thousands in bank of papa’s, and 
this place will lease for six hundred dollars 
a year ; that is, stock and tools, or for half 
that if I sell the stock. The man will buy 
if I will make it an object for him to do 
so, and I think it best to take up with his 
offer; for the stock may die, or he may 
abuse them, and we would be equally out 
of pocket.” 

Now that what we have been wanting 
is so near, the dear old home never seemed 
so lovely before, nor the rooms so full of 
tender associations;” and Jessie fell to 
crying. 

There, Puss, don’t cry. If you can’t 
bear to leave it, I will just tell him so, and 
make an end of it.” 

^^No, you will not either! I am not 
opposed to the plan at all, only it comes so 


CHANGES. 


31 


suddenly, and our hearts are a little tender 
towards the old home.’’ 

Yes, so they are. You girls will have 
to do the house-hunting in the city. You 
are the ones to live there, and must look 
out for what will suit you and our means, 
rather than myself.” 

0 Will, you are such a good brother ! ” 

Taffy, taffy, Jess! 1 don’t need any. 
I just love you two as the apple of my 
eye, — almost as much as I do Kate, and 
I am not half so much afraid of you as 
I am of her, either.” 

That is a good joke. You afraid of 
anybody ! I dare say if you haven’t 
already popped the question to that ^ sweet 
maid,’ you will do it. As a matter of 
course you have a right to a ^yes,’ and 
she will never dare say anything else.” 

Much you know about it. Courting 
is all very nice ; but popping the question, 
— many a man has turned gray in a night 
at the thought of it, or remained a bache- 
lor to the end of his days because he 


32 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

couldn’t muster up courage to face the 
music. I believe in having a ^ John Alden’ 
to do it for you, if that celebrity had not 
so bungled as to speak for himself more 
powerfully than for his friend. 

Mammy, these waffles are too good, — 
good for nothing but to be eaten. Bring 
another plateful,” said Will. 

Aunt Chloe was either Mammy ” or 
Aunty” to these children. 

After supper the three went back to the 
library firej and Jessie opened the old 
piano for the first time since papa’s going 
away. Together they sang in mezzo, con- 
tralto, and tenor, ’Tis years since last 
we met,” Do they miss me at home?” 
and Maryland, my Maryland,” until the 
fire burned itself out, and they were tired. 

Next morning the girls climbed into the 
rickety family carriage, with Will and Uncle 
Pete on the front seat, to drive into the city. 

Uncle Pete had done his best to make it 
presentable. He had washed it off, but 
the original lustre of its ancient panels was 


CHANGES. 


33 


quite gone, and one window was out, while 
the curtains had a floppy” habit when 
down, so that Will had them all rolled up 
tight, which made it more cheerful, as on 
this morning it was clear, and everything 
had a fresh, cleaned-up appearance, even 
the pale blue sky above them, after the rain. 

The road was a sea of mud,” and to 
keep from being spattered, the girls kept 
their alpaca dusters over their wraps, with 
thick green barege veils over their bonnets. 
What cared they? There was to be a 
change from the old ways of living to 
something new, and they were all young 
enough to enjoy the prospect. How soon, 
with chat and badinage, they found them- 
selves travelling over the Long Bridge, 
celebrated in song and story as the bridge 
over which the Union army went march- 
ing into the South, with broken step, lest 
the equal, soldierly tread should cause its 
vibratory motion to bring it to a wreck. 

wonder,” said Jessie, if that Wash- 
ington monument ever will be finished ? ” 


34 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

It will be a good while first, I think,” 
responded Will. Nobody ever yet was 
able to fathom the ^plan’ adopted, or to 
find out what becomes of all the money 
put into the boxes in the public buildings, 
marked ^Monument Fund.’ If you are 
curious about it, there is a low wooden 
building at its foot in the White Lot con- 
taining a lot of strange stones to decorate 
the monument when it is finished, — stones 
from societies, nationalities, and the isles 
of the sea. 

Here we are on the avenue. You girls 
report at Harvey’s restaurant at one 
o’clock, for lunch. Good-by, and success to 
you. Uncle Pete, you take the carriage 
and horses to Nailor’s stables as usual, 
only be sure to be here for us at four, 
sharp. Days are getting short, and we 
want to get through the worst of the mud 
before dark.” 

Such a series of adventures as those 
girls had in house-hunting would form a 
chapter by themselves ! 


CHAPTER III. 


HOUSE-HUNTING IN THE CITY. 

W HEN the young people reached 
home that evening, and had been 
refreshed by a warm supper, — one of Aunt 
Chloe’s best, — they gathered around the 
ingleside,” and talked over the events of 
the day. 

Will sat in the sleepy hollow,” deftly 
manufactured out of a barrel, while Geor- 
gia assumed her favorite attitude by the 
chimney, seated on an old ottoman,” and 
Jessie in her accustomed rocker. 

Now this is what I call comfort,” said 
Will, ^^for it is just frosty enough to-night 
to make a fire pleasant and cheerful. 
Girls, we have had some pretty good times 
in this old house, before the war, when papa 
was rich, and we were careless children. 
Little we knew or cared about life then.” 

35 


36 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Speak for yourself, Will,” replied 
Jessie. If I was merely a baby, I used 
to imagine wonderful things as happening 
to all of us. How we should go abroad 
and travel, having no end of fun, seeing 
all the wonders of the world, we girls 
growing up and marrying in fine style ; 
but, alas, all my dreams have just come to 
nothing at all, and here we are planning 
to leave this dear old place, not because 
we want to, but because we must. Oh, 
I want to tell you of some of our experi- 
ences to-day. Of course you are dying of 
curiosity, but, being a man, you would not 
confess it.” 

Yes, I should like to know the upshot 
of your quest, but as for ^ curiosity,’ that’s 
a purely feminine trait. We men ^just 
want to know, you know.’ Oh, no, it’s 
not curiosity. Go on.” 

Let me tell mine first, Jess,” said 
Georgia; ^^for if I am the youngest, I 
always have to lead ofi. 

After leaving you. Will, we consulted 


HOUSE-HUNTING IN THE CITY. 37 

the Star to see where we must go to find 
rooms suitable for housekeeping in a small 
way. Now to read those ‘ ads./ on^ would 
think Washington so full of first-class 
accommodations that it would be very easy 
to suit ourselves, as all had a ^ southern 
exposure ’ with the ^ modern improvements ' 
attached. 

Well, we travelled north, and we trav- 
elled south ; we travelled east, and we 
travelled west, — until we had spent all our 
car-fare, and were footsore from walking 
after it was gone, and tired climbing 
stairs. Some ^elegant’ places turned out 
to be barren, stuffy, gloomy, execrable, and 
the landladies were many of them as quaint 
as Dickens’s characters. One little old maid 
was taking her solitary lunch when we ran 
up the front flight of steps, and rung the 
bell. She poked her queer little head, that 
set so stiffly upon a long, crane-like neck, 
out of the basement-door, saying to us, 
^Come down here for the rooms.’ The 
^ lunch ’ was spread out on a fruit napkin 


38 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 


at a side table. A little brown earthen 
teapot, that looked as antiquated as her- 
self, with a dish of bread and a baked 
apple, was all. She looked, and it looked, 
so lonesome, I don’t think I should like to 
be an old maid, and have to look as she 
did, or eat in solitary state. 

^ Yes,’ she said, ^ I have a suite of 
rooms suitable for housekeeping, but I 
couldn’t let them for three young folks to 
keep house in, especially brothers and sis- 
ters. People have to be careful who they 
take in. I have to. I will not rent my 
rooms to single women, to people with 
children, to any one who keeps a cat or 
dog or a singin’ bird. I can’t bear the 
noise of the last, and children ! — they 
just ruin all one’s furniture. Indeed, the 
other day I suppose I mortally offended a 
lady who came with her husband to look 
at my rooms. She was real nice lookin’, 
but kind o’ tired like; and, after lookin’ 
at the rooms, and sayin’ they was pleased, 
I happened to think perhaps they might 


HOUSE-HUNTING IN THE CITY. 39 

have children. So I says, Everything is 
satisfactory, providin’ you’ve no children.” 
^^We have four,” she snapped out, and 
bust out a-cryin’. ^^We have been every- 
where, my husband and I, to get board or 
rooms, but nobody wants children, no mat- 
ter what we pay. I say, Charles, let’s go 
home,, and Tcill our darlings to satisfy 
people who give board or rent rooms,” and 
then she laughed as hard as she’d cried. 
I felt real bad for ’em, but I couldnt have 
children round, tearing up and down stairs, 
and scratching up the furniture. I was 
real sorry, for she was a sweet little thing. 
Now it’s just as bad with you. I know 
I should like you, but I couldn’t have 
young folks around, cornin’ and goin’ all 
times day an’ night. Now what I likes is 
to rent my rooms to settled, elderly peo- 
ple who hasn’t any one but theirselves, 
or young men roomers ” from the de- 
partments, who are only in their rooms 
evenins’.’ 

‘‘1 just winked at Jess, and said, ^ Well, 


40 WILLIS Peyton's inhekitance. 

I do not think, madam, your terms would 
suit us any more than we should suit you." 

The next place we tried," said Jessie, 
turned out to be a fashionable boarding- 
house. The rooms were in suites, but too 
high priced for us. It really was a nice 
place. We were sorry, for everything was 
so fresh and inviting. We had to wait for 
madam, as she was showing rooms to some 
parties when we went in. Georgia and I 
had ample time to take in all the pretty 
things in the parlor before she came in 
with them. Presently they came in to- 
gether. She, the brisk, business-like pro- 
prietor, with a thin little old man and a 
beautiful young woman, — young enough 
to be his daughter, as we supposed she 
was, until the lady of the house said, 
^ Senator B., shall I have the rooms made 
ready for you? Your wife seems to be 
much pleased. I have Senator V. and 
Congressman L. and Hon. Mr. N. I am 
sure you could not fail to be pleased with 
the social side of the house, and I think 


HOUSE-HUNTING IN THE CITY. 41 

from my experience I could satisfy you in 
other respects.’ 

Mrs. Senator spoke up, ^ I haven’t seen 
rooms anywhere, or a location that suited 
me so well.’ 

^ They don’t suit me, madam, and I 
think we will waste no more time, but 
settle down for the winter in C Street,’ 
said he somewhat churlishly. 

^^We couldn’t help pitying that young 
wife of whom we had heard so much when 
she was married^ to him, she having been 
in the treasury, and everybody thought it 
such a grand thing for her. Her eyes were 
full of tears that she seemed too proud to 
either shed or wipe away. We exchanged 
glances, for we both thought how different, 
how much nicer some men’s ways are than 
those of others ; for you. Will, told us 
this morning to find a place to suit our- 
selves, as we, not you, had to stay there 
most of the time. Now we had run across 
^ C ’ Street in our travels, and it was a 
fashionable quarter, years and years ago, 


42 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

we were told, when Webster and Clay and 
men of that far-away time lived there ; but 
now the old-fashioned houses are not gen- 
erally occupied by senators who have wives 
to go into society, or who might want to 
live where they could see a little of life ; 
^ F ’ Street, they said, or some of the 
streets near by, were fashionable streets, 
and the prices correspondingly high, as we 
found out by inquiring at one or two places. 
Our little bank account would be swallowed 
up with one winter’s living in that section.” 

^^Come, don’t be all night telling your 
adventures and impressions,” said Will. 

Did you find anything to suit us ? ” 

^‘Yes, we did,” they cried in chorus. 
^^The loveliest little house, with a sunny 
back porch and a long window in front, 
and a stable at the rear, with a warm, 
plastered room over it, just big enough for 
Aunt Chloe, only it’s ever so far out Four- 
teenth Street, almost to Columbian College ; 
but we thought as it was cheap, and would 
be so handy for your lectures, we took the 


HOUSE-HUNTING IN THE CITY. 43 

refusal of it that you might go and see it. 
It would be ever so much nicer to keep 
house in a little place to ourselves. The 
whole six rooms will cost no more rent 
than two would in the heart of the city.” 

Well, it seems to me, for amateurs, you 
are getting along pretty fast; only I do 
not attend lectures in the college, for the 
law department is in the city. However, 
if the house suits you two, we will take it, 
for we can t leave Aunt Chloe behind, nor 
could you keep house without her. I can 
find something for Uncle Pete to do, if he 
is not wanted here. But come ! do you 
know what time it is ? Just twenty-five 
minutes to twelve. Give us a kiss, and 
skip.” 


CHAPTER IV. 


NEW SCENES. 

I T was quite late in the fall before the 
young Peytons were settled in their 
new home in Washington. But at last the 
change was made, and Will had resumed 
his law studies in earnest, while, the girls 
adjusted themselves to their new surround- 
ings, and began to look about them. 

Being in mourning, they could not have 
gone into society even if their circum- 
stances had warranted it, which they did 
not. 

The girls, the year before, had spent 
several days at the Centennial in Philadel- 
phia, and they were, like many others, 
stimulated by what they saw. Indeed, an 
era in American culture dates from that 
exhibition, when the possible in art became 
44 


NEW SCENES. 


45 


known to them for the first time. Sculp- 
ture, painting, decorative art, with cera- 
mics and the power and beauty of color, 
flashed like a revelation from the east to 
the west, from north to south. To women, 
especially, it was as if they were passing 
through a course of training. Their quick- 
ness of perception and adaptability wrought 
wonders in a short time. The bric-a-brac 
age set in. Satin and antique patterns in 
lace, wood-carving, hand-painting of every 
blossom of the tree and flower of the field, 
began to appear in a thousand beautiful 
things intended to adorn and refine home 
life ; while schools of art and artistic asso- 
ciations sprang up on every hand, adapting 
themselves to the needs of young women 
who gladly went in and occupied these new 
avenues of pleasant toil of a remunerative 
character. The fashion of ugly things 
passed away, and the revival of a taste for 
old things, still beautiful in the quaint 
curvings and delicate forms of the Colonial 
period, was instituted. Garrets and closets 


46 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

disgorged their burdens of disused heir- 
looms, and under skilful repairs became 
articles of use and beauty once more. 
Many a decayed family took advantage of 
this renaissance to dispose of antique chests 
of mahogany or rosewood, square tables, 
with one broad leaf and slender legs, corner 
cupboards, claw-footed stands, and old 
bronzes, to replenish their purses and fur- 
nish the necessaries of life. Even men did 
not scorn to go into the business of selling 
old-style furniture, made as good as new, 
at fancy prices. 

Now Jessie and Georgia were bright 
young girls, just at the age to take up new 
ideas ; just near enough genteel poverty to 
see the utility of entering into some one of 
these avenues of money-making. At least, 
Georgia did, she being of the more practical 
turn, while Jessie’s sense of the beautiful 
and her poetical temperament responded in 
another way to the charm of all she saw 
on her Centennial rounds. 

Will would have been much surprised 


NEW SCENES. 


47 


had he known just what change was taking 
place in the minds of his sisters^ and not a 
little shocked ; for he was born and reared 
under a social system which regarded 
women as too fine and lovable for every- 
day, practical uses, outside of home life. 
The fact was, he was deeply engrossed with 
his law'studies, getting ready for graduation 
in the spring ; and his ardent desire was to 
be through with it and settled to business, 
as the closing up of his father’s estate 
began to haunt his mind day and night. 
Lastly, he was in love ; he longed for life 
to begin to yield its opportunities, that he 
might dispose of his sisters comfortably, 
and please himself by proposing to his 
divine Kate. 

Such was the state of affairs with the 
Peytons at the beginning of the winter of 
1877. 

Jess, I wonder what Will would say if 
he knew how deep I was in this art craze.” 

Oh, he would think it nice, your paint- 
ing on satin, plaques, and cards ; but if he 


48 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

knew you put them up for sale at an art 
dealer’s, that would be another thing in his 
estimation.” 

All the same, I am going to do it if I 
can. I love it, and it does not in the least 
encroach upon my home life. I have hours 
that, otherwise, would be spent in idleness. 
Indeed, if I succeed, I mean to add all 
sorts of fancy work and knitting to my 
accomplishments. I can crochet now, so I 
will not have to learn that ; and I have 
an idea of setting up an art school myself, 
when I ^ graduate from my course of study.’ ” 

Georgia, where do you think I went 
to-day ? You’d never guess, so of course I 
shall have to tell you. I just stumbled upon 
the loveliest place, something I’ve heard 
about but never happened to know where to 
find before, — Mrs. P.’s kindergarten. I do 
wish you had been there ! The dear little 
children were so happy making clay balls, 
block houses, and dancing to the music of 
the piano. There were four little tables, 
low and square, around which sat eight or 


NEW SCENES. 


49 


ten children from three to five years old, 
with a teacher at each directing the play, 
and teaching them so easily they never 
thought of being tired. It is just what I 
should like to do. They seemed so happy ; 
each little thing skipping about, when it 
had occasion to get up or move, so naturally 
and gracefully, without reproof. I talked 
afterward with the principal. It would 
take two years of study and practice to 
become a kindergartner ; but if it does cost 
two hundred dollars to learn, I would rather 
do without clothes — almost, than not learn 
it. Now it is a good, womanly, self-support- 
ing profession, which even Will could not 
object to.” 

However can we manage it, Jess ? 
The money part, I mean. Perhaps I shall 
be able to earn a little to help you ; that 
is, if my scheme works. Beside, I can do 
all my work at home, and in doing so 
attend to home affairs, with Aunt Chloe’s 
help, so that Will can have nothing to say 
on that score.” 


50 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Georgia, let us keep our secret until we 
have gotten so far along he cannot inter- 
fere if he would.” 

All right, only he is such a good 
brother I would not deceive him in any- 
thing else, not even a love affair.” 

Nor I. No lovers for me that he does 
not approve. However, for the present 
our lovers are not likely to trouble us.” 

I should think not. I’m in no danger, 
but you, the beauty of the family, had 
better go to your kindergarten deeply 
veiled, lest some wandering troubadour 
or attache ‘ gobble ’ you up.” 

“Georgia, you are talking slang and 
nonsense in the same breath.” 

“ 0 Jess, I’ve an idea ! ” 

“ Have you, my dear ? Does it tire your 
brain ? If so, share it with me.” 

“ It is about the money for your kinder- 
garten expenses. Do you remember the 
old rosewood high chest of drawers up- 
stairs ? And that claw-footed table in the 
spare room with a square top, that is 


NEW SCENES. 


51 


always in the way, being too big for the 
centre of so small a room, and does not 
look well any where else ? and the brass 
set of fire-dogs ? I dare say that Zimmer- 
man would jump at them, and give us 
quite a lot of greenbacks.’’ 

I suppose so ; but what would Will 
say?” 

You know he wanted us to leave them 
in our house at Munson’s Hill, because he 
thought them not fit to move, or. adapted 
to modern uses.” 

Well, I suppose he would be reconciled 
to their loss if, some day, he awoke to find 
them missing, and our purses fattened by 
the change.” 

Jess, don’t let us make a bug-bear of 
Will, by asking what he will think every 
time we turn around or sneeze. Those 
things are as good as sold, for I am going 
to see Zimmerman this very afternoon, and 
ask him to call round and look at them. 
I mean to set a value on them so high he 
will think them prizes. They are ever so 


52 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

old. Papa used to say that George Wash- 
ington once shaved in front of the chest of 
drawers, which had a tiny, square, swing- 
ing mirror with a little comb-drawer under 
it ; but, being detached, it got broken.” 

Georgia, I’d like to keep them myself ; 
but since we must raise the money, I am 
willing to sacrifice even the shrine upon 
which the Father of his Country once 
leaned and shaved.” 

Their sale did not enrich the girls, but it 
enabled Jessie to pay something down, and 
begin her kindergarten training, into which 
she entered with all the enthusiasm of one 
who loves her calling, and means to suc- 
ceed in it. Nothing was too hard in it 
for her to do, even if it cost hours of 
midnight toil. 

In the mean time, Georgia’s profession 
being something more ephemeral, and she 
such a practical body, with no false pride, 
before winter was over had established a 
reputation for doing good amateur work. 
A dealer in such things sold her panels and 


NEW SCENES. 


53 


plaques for a commission ” which left a 
sum sufficient to keep the girls supplied with 
a little ready cash for the emergencies that 
are always coming up, and demanding pin- 
money of a girl. Everything at home moved 
along so smoothly that Will never suspected 
that his ladylike sisters were doing anything 
more than spending their idle hours in the 
usual way of girls who had fathers or 
brothers to provide for them ; although he 
was conscious that the word provide,” as 
yet, was pretty much left to the realms of 
imagination. ^^But then they were such 
sensible girls, they were not forever making 
demands on a fellow’s purse.” They con- 
sidered that they must get along with as 
little as possible until he was able to earn 
money, their bank account being so small, 
and growing beautifully less every day. 

Spring in Washington is charming from 
the time of the first violet and trailing arbu- 
tus until the summer solstice in the midst of 
June. It is, also, the season when all the 
colleges in the district, in festal array. 


64 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

graduate scores of young men. There is 
that Jesuit College of Georgetown, with 
its high standard of scholarship ; Colum- 
bian, of a later period ; and that other, 
which came up like a flower at the close of 
the war. It is a rara avis, — to mix meta- 
phors, — that bears light and dark fruit on 
the same stem, being a colored institution 
that graduates more white than colored 
students, many of whom belong to the 
gentler sex — Howard University. 

The students of each vie with the other 
in trying to outrival one another during 
the Commencement season. Committees 
of receptions prepare most gorgeous and 
expensive programmes, and send to all the 
friends of the students ; while they in turn 
spare no expense in bestowing floral gifts 
and bouquets upon their pet graduates. 
Even the President of the United States 
takes part in these ceremonies, and bestows 
the diplomas, tied up with blue ribbons, 
upon the lawyers and doctors just embel- 
lished with the B.A.’s ” and M.D.’s,” 


NEW SCENES. 


55 


who go forth to conquer or be conquered, 
as they have the ability, or want of it, to 
sustain themselves. 

Lincoln Hall, which then stood at Ninth 
and D Streets, was the favorite graduating 
rostrum for all the colleges during those 
years. Howard generally leads oE in 
March ; Columbian, in April or May ; while 
Georgetown prefers the leafy month of 
June, when roses blow their sweetest breaths 
across the soft moonlight nights. ^ 

It was a lovely night in May that Willis 
Peyton was graduated. He had been the 
unanimous choice of his class as valedicto- 
rian. He was handsome, fair, and graceful, 
with just enough red in his hair to give 
him the touch of sanguineness which capti- 
vates, and augurs success to him who pos- 
sesses the happy temperament. Notice 
it : men with a touch of an auburn glint 
in beard or hair are generally successful, 
when another type of man fails, for want 
of this sign of hopefulness, — a something 
that goes with it, and gilds the, edge of 


56 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


even the adverse with a gleam of bright- 
ness, depriving Fate of half its power to 
hurt. 

Somebody had bestowed a harp of golden 
roses set in smilax, and he was quite sure 
Kate of the hazel eyes had a hand in weav- 
ing it. It took him and the girls to carry 
home the bouquets showered upon him ; 
and many a joke had they as he would 
drop one now and then, for he had his 
diploma to carry, which he insisted he 
would take care of himself, it being a sign 
that he had really passed; without it he 
never could believe the pleasing fact, al- 
though a picture of the house crammed from 
wall to wall with bright, upturned faces, as 
he delivered the valedictory, and the music 
by the Marine Band still singing and ting- 
ling in his ears, made it a happy scene to 
remember as long as life lasted. 

It was long past midnight before the 
three happy girls retired, for Kate, Will’s 
sweetheart, accompanied them home that 
night by pre-arrangement; and it was very 


NEW SCENES. 


57 


late the next morning before Aunt Chloe 
thought best to summon those chilluns ” 
to breakfast. 

They were hardly seated when a gentle- 
man called to see Will on a business matter. 
He was greatly surprised on going into the 
little parlor to see one of the noted prac- 
titioners of the Capital Bar, an elderly 
gentleman, who had grown gray in the ser- 
vice, and had been offered a judgeship on 
several different occasions, but refused be- 
cause he preferred the greater emoluments 
of a private practice to the cares of office, 
even on the Bench. 

Good-morning, my young friend. I 
have called to congratulate you on your 
own account, and, also, because I knew and 
very highly esteemed your father. I have 
another object in view. I am getting old, 
my practice is large, and I need some young 
blood. In a word, I have come to the 
place where I prefer office practice to going 
before the bar ; and as I have a large busi- 
ness requiring both kinds of work, 1 pro- 


58 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

pose taking in a young man fresh from the 
schools. I am going to offer it to you .on 
these terms. Twelve hundred dollars the 
first year, eighteen the second, and twenty- 
five the third, or a junior partnership, 
whichever is preferable, in case — always 
— that we suit each other upon a nearer 
acquaintance. I judged from your busi- 
ness-like method of reasoning that we will. 
Now you can consider the matter for a 
week, if you wish, for I do not desire you 
to act hurriedly ; but of this rest assured, 
it is one chance in a hundred. In the 
usual way of building up a practice for 
yourself, it will take you at least five years 
or more before you would dare, for instance, 
to think of marrying.” 

Thank you, Mr. Bridges. Really, you 
take me so by surprise that I am quite 
overwhelmed. I certainly consider your 
offer not only a very great compliment, 
since I can have done nothing as yet to 
deserve it, but also a very high tes- 
timonial of your regard for my father. 


NEW SCENES. 


59 


Stay ! Let me call in and introduce my 
sisters.'’ 

Not this time. Not this time. If we 
come to terms, the social relations of our 
families will soon adjust themselves.” So 
saying, Mr. Bridges took his departure, leav- 
ing the astounded young lawyer in a state 
of exaltation which resulted in his rushing 
into the dining-room and kissing all three 
of those maidens, still gossiping over coffee 
and toast, before he explained himself or 
the situation. 

Then there was a scene which brought 
Aunt Chloe to the door to see “ What in 
heben dese chillen be about now ? ” 


CHAPTER V. 


A WEDDING. 


FTER mature consideration, Willis 



l \ Peyton saw clearly that lie could not 
hope to do better than take up with law- 
yer Bridges’s offer. 

In the course of the following year he 
came to know all about the business ven- 
tures of his sisters, and having nothing but 
prejudice to interpose, he soon became 
quite reconciled to having it so ; for as soon 
as they were self-supporting in the new 
callings, he dared to think of marriage 
with Kate Kerdolph, whom he loved to 
distraction, or at least thought he did. 

It is quite time that Kate Kerdolph, 
Will’s fiancee, should be introduced. Here 
she comes up Fourteenth Street, with his 
sisters. She steps like a queen, is slender 


60 


A WEDDING. 


61 


and graceful. She dresses in a quiet, re- 
fined way, in good material, but plain in 
cut almost to severity of style; but she 
has an air of ladyhood about her that 
enables her to carry this most trying of 
styles to perfection. Her face is not 
exactly beautiful, but has something so 
charming in its expression that it gives 
the impression of beauty, with something 
added which many beauties lack, — sweet- 
ness and intelligence to illuminate it. She 
is of medium height, but her marked car- 
riage gives one the impression that she is 
unusually tall. Her voice is sweet, clear of 
tone, and adapted to reading or singing, 
in both of which accomplishments she has 
been highly cultivated, so that none could 
question Will’s taste. Besides, she belongs 
to the family of a retired army officer, 
who sympathized with the South during 
the War of the Rebellion. He then having 
just been retired, was not put to the test 
of declaring his political opinions at the 
point of the sword. 


62 WILLIS Peyton’s inheeitance. 

Willis having been on the other side,” 
could not help being pleased that his wife’s 
relatives were also ; although she was too 
young to have any opinions of her own, 
and at present dead issues ” had no charm 
for her, even as subjects of curiosity. That 
dreadful time, which divided families and 
broke up happy homes, was past. Don’t 
let us speak of it,” she said, whenever Willis 
broached the subject so near to him, he 
having had the misfortune to be of one 
opinion, and his dear old father of another. 

The girls have been shopping with Kate, 
for the wedding-day is set, and that event 
near at hand. They had also been down 
to Epiphany Church, to look that sacred 
edifice over, for an army officer of the old 
regime could hardly consent to have a 
daughter given away ” anywhere else but 
in that or a Catholic church. It is so easy 
to give invitations to all one’s acquaint- 
ances to come to the church ceremony, 
and the private reception can then be large 
or small as one may desire. ^ 


A WEDDING. 


63 


There had been several family caucuses 
about the matter. The event would take 
place early in the new year. The girls, 
with Aunt Chloe, would keep house. They 
were now self-supporting in their chosen 
professions; while Willis would go to his 
wife’s home, she being an only child, and 
her parents too old and feeble to be left 
to themselves. It was Willis’s second 
year with Mr. Bridges, the attorney. His 
salary increased, he felt justified in setting 
up a family life for himself. 

It was one of those exceptionally severe 
winter storms which occasionally greet 
Washingtonians, and astonish visitors from 
the North, who have run away from just 
such weather, that ushered in Will and 
Kate’s wedding-day. The snow flew in 
every direction, and drifted in heaps. 
Horse-cars and vehicles could hardly get 
about, and that Northern implement, the 
snow-plough, was brought into active duty. 
The weather, however, did not block the 
preparations for the wedding. The chan- 


64 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

cel in Epiphany was wreathed in smilax ; 
pots of palms and tropical trees stood 
about ; while over the place where the vows 
were to be pronounced, hung a wedding- 
bell in pure white rosebuds and daisies. 

The stormy day came to an end at last, 
and eight o’clock rolled around. The 
church was ablaze with light which gleamed 
out over the pure white snow with a yellow 
radiance. Soon guests began to arrive by 
the carriage load or sleighful, and the body 
of the great auditorium was well filled up 
to the seats reserved for the families by a 
band of white satin ribbon stretched across 
the aisle. 

Ushers in full dress, with white kids on 
their hands, and lily of the valley bouton- 
nieres^ did the honors of receiving and seat- 
ing guests according to their social rank, 
which, for a republican country, is quite 
a feature of society in the nation’s capital ; 
so that filling the office of usher at a stylish 
wedding is no small task, but requires an 
intimate acquaintance with the fact that 


A WEDDING. 


65 


cabinet families precede those of the 
Supreme Court, — or do they ? for that is 
still an open question ; senators’ wives go 
in before those of the members of the 
house or citizens ; and that the army is 
the peer of any or all of them. Indeed, 
tp so ‘‘ usher ” as to please all these social 
sticklers for prestige, requires a goodly 
degree of diplomatic talent, which ought 
to be rewarded with a position as attache, 
or some leading position in the State 
department. 

Just as the clock hands touched nine, the 
organ began to peal forth the march from 
Lohengrin, to which so many have stepped 
from single blessedness to double happiness 
or misery, as the wheel of the lottery drew 
them a blank or a prize. Every sound was 
hushed as the four ushers led in the proces- 
sion. They were followed by Jessie and 
Georgia, in white of some soft, floating ma- 
terial ; immediately behind them were Col- 
onel Kerdolph, and on his arm his daughter 
Kate, in a creamy white silk en traine, but 


66 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

almost concealed by a veil which floated, 
like a summer’s misty cloud, about her. A 
murmur of How lovely ! ” greeted her as 
she passed. Willis followed with his 
mother-in-law, that was to be, on his arm. 

The ushers divided at the altar, and the 
bridesmaids stood aside while the happy 
couple took their places, — the parents so 
that the colonel could give his daughter 
away, and Jessie convenient to remove the 
glove for the wedding-ring. They made a 
very pretty group, when the white surpliced 
rector came in. 

The marriage service of the Episcopal 
Church has served as a model for marriage 
services of nearly all the Protestant 
churches ; and although it is sometimes 
almost ludicrous to hear a poor young man 
endowing” his rich bride with all his 
worldly goods,” and she pronouncing vows 
of obedience ” that have in most cases 
become quite obsolete, the service is sweet, 
solemn, and impressive to those who really 
wish to be made one in the gospel, as sym- 


A WEDDING. 


67 


bolical of the inner marriage, as well as 
that of the law. 

The reception that followed the marriage 
was confined to the immediate families and 
a few friends. 

You must cut the cake,” said Jessie to 
Kate. It is considered good luck to all 
who eat of it for you to do so.” 

There is a ring in it,” cried Kate, as 
she rose to perform the bride’s task. 
only hope one of you girls will get it, or 
Laura Bridges ; whoever does will be the 
next bride.” 

Give us generous slices, then,” said 
Georgia, to double our chances.” 

In partaking of the refreshments, all 
formality ceased, and Will insisted on going 
about and seeing that every one was served ; 

because,” said he, ^^I always did think 
this setting a bride and groom apart, to be 
waited on like babies, would be more than 
I could stand. I see you meant to pen us 
up in this corner, but I am determined to 
get out.” So saying, he emerged a free 


68 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

man so far as ceremony was concerned; 
and his actions broke the ice of formality, 
and every one was perfectly at ease and in 
gay spirits. 

Oh,” exclaimed Jessie, I’ve bitten the 
ring ! See it ! Isn’t it handsome? There ! 
I thought I was born to be , an old maid, 
but by this token I shall be the next bride. 
I warn you, friends, if you wait for my 
wedding, you may have to wait a good 
while, since ^ I’m o’er young to marry yet,’ 
and have no adorer.” 

Just then a young man present, one of 
the ushers, gave her a look of admiration, 
and thought, ^^It will not be my fault 
if she has to say that much longer ; 
for, the bride not excepted, I never saw 
a handsomer or more charming young 
woman.” 

Will turned to Kate, whom he had not 
neglected, if he did look out for others. 

That train we must take leaves within an 
hour. You’d better steal away, and get 
into your travelling clothes. I will cover 


A WEDDING. 


69 


your retreat by keeping these good people 
busy.” 

Kate and Georgia retired, while Will 
kept up and parried sallies of wit that, like 
the dewdrops on the grass, are not transfer- 
able by any device known to science or art. 
They glisten and sparkle for a few moments, 
and are gone ; so of wit, it flashes over 
conversation like ilka blade o’ grass that 
keeps its ane drop o’ dew,” but cannot be 
transplanted or translated without losing 
its beauty. 

When Kate emerged in a dark-brown 
travelling suit, all of the same material 
from bonnet to gaiter-top, the guests had 
returned to the parlors. On entering the 
carriage, Jessie and Georgia threw their 
slippers, with fidelity to the traditional 
future, after them ; and they and the 
ushers shed copious showers of rice over 
them, thus insuring good luck and good 
fortune, unless all signs should fail. 

How we shall miss Will,” said Georgia, 
as she and Jessie discussed the wedding in 


70 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


the privacy of their bedrooms, while they 
laid aside the beautiful garments, and, 
worn out, prepared to retire. Even youth 
and beauty has to refresh itself by nature’s 
balm, — sweet sleep. 

Indeed we will. Of course we shall 
see them often, and he will look out for 
us, but he will never be quite the same. 
Georgia, didn’t you think that tall young 
man, whom Will had for his first usher, 
very distinguished in appearance ? ” 

^^Yes, but he did not make so very 
much of an impression upon me. He is 
Senator W.’s son ; and you know that 
they, like preachers’ sons, have to . be of 
uncommonly good material to amount to 
much, although most girls think them 
great prizes on account of their family 
position.” • 

I suppose they do ; but he really was 
a very elegant young man, and as brilliant 
as could be. He almost equalled Will, 
who hadn’t a bit of dignity, but just made 
everybody feel at ease.” 


A WEDDING. 


71 


The idea of our Will having dignity ! 
You know he always was the most cheer- 
ful and best-natured one of the family. 
He’s never blue, whatever happens, and 
I overheard Mr. Bridges say that he 
thought Will one of the most promising 
young men at the bar. He predicted a 
grand future for him, and seems as much 
attached to him as though he were a 
son.” 

^^Well, that arises, no doubt, from the 
fact that Mr. Bridges lost a son, a bright 
young man whom he loved so dearly that 
some seem to think, that on that subject, 
his loss, he is a little off.” 

I shouldn’t wonder if he was. It must 
be a terrible blow to a father to lose a 
grown-up son on whom he has placed all 
his affections and hopes for the future.” 

How lovely he is in his manner with 
Laura. She seems to look at him as 
though she regarded him as the handsom- 
est and smartest man in the world.” 

They say she does, and that she is 


72 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

ambitious for him to go on the Supreme 
Court Bench. There is nothing that beauty, 
tact, and sweet womanliness can win, but 
that she would lay at the feet of her 
father.” 

You grow eloquent, Jess.” 

^^Do I? Well, it seems to me that the 
most beautiful and tender affection in the 
world is that between father and daughter, 
when they fully understand each other.” 

Jess, do you know I have often thought 
if Will had not been already engaged, that 
he would have liked to have him for a 
son-in-law ? ” 

Likely enough, since he admires Will 
so much. But he also appears to think 
Kate a very charming person.” 

Yes, he does. His manners with 
women are very nice. He doesn’t talk to 
them as though he regarded them as infe- 
rior beings to be talked down to, but 
as equals, whom he both admires and 
respects.” 

What an ^ Admirable Crichton ’ he 


A WEDDING. 


73 


must be ! Come, let us resolve not to say 
another word, but creep into our respective 
beds, and put out the light before the 
morning dawns; for, sure as I breathe, 
the clock is striking three.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


A DISCOVERY. 

H OW many brides have made discover- 
ies on their wedding journeys that 
seemed to upset all their preconceived esti- 
mates of their husbands’ characters. One 
bride we knew discovered that the man 
she had married was partially deranged, 
before she had been his wife three days. 

Now Kate made a discovery not quite 
so startling as that, but one that caused 
her no little uneasiness. Will was the 
tenderest and most loving of husbands, but 
in a few days she began to observe a ten- 
dency to moodiness, a reserve of manner, 
at intervals, for which she could not 
account. Therefore, one rainy day while 
they were still sojourning at a hotel in 
New York, and did not care to go out 
74 


A DISCOVERY. 


75 


sightseeing in such a storm, she thought 
it a good opportunity to ask him about it. 

Seated on the arm of the big chair in 
which he silently sat, she put her arms 
about him, and said, Will, dear, why 
don’t you tell me what is on your mind ? 
I notice that whenever you have been the 
brightest, a kind of silence seems to come 
creeping over you, and you fall into a 
moody manner that troubles me, because 
I cannot understand it. Not sorry, are 
your’ 

My darling, how could you for a moment 
think of such a thing ? I never expect 
to be sorry, but consider it always Heaven’s 
choicest, best of gifts when it gave me you 
with your priceless love.” So saying, he 
kissed her tenderly, again relapsing into 
deep thought. 

^^Come, that’s all very nice that you 
love me so; but, if you love me, give me 
your confidence. No secrets between us 
now, remember. Any old Moves’ that, 
like Banquo’s ghost, ^ loill not doion ’ I* ” 


76 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

dear; I never loved any woman 
but you. How could 1 , having seen you ? 
There something on my mind always ; but 
it is not sentimental, and perhaps would 
seem inexplicable to you. However, I will 
tell you, for it so haunts me, you will be 
sure to find it out.” 

Kate began to look frightened. What 
was he going to confess ? 

Don’t be alarmed, my precious. It is 
nothing I have done. It is something that 
I am heir to, — my father’s claim against 
the Government for damages to his estate in 
depredations and stock confiscated or car- 
ried off. It amounts to, at least, a hundred 
thousand dollars. The very day that father 
died so suddenly, he was talking about it 
to me but a few moments before. He said 
the case was made up, in the hands of an 
agent in whom he had perfect confidence, 
the vouchers all in, and his loyalty un- 
questioned. Therefore, it would soon 
be paid. 

^^Now I find that it might have been. 


A DISCOVERY. 


77 


had he lived to conduct it to a close. In 
every instance where a claim is presented 
against the Government, the guardians of 
the public treasury act as though every 
man with a claim had a disposition to rob 
the Government ; and the fact that I was 
a rebel prejudices the case against me as 
one of the heirs. Every move we make 
meets with a ^ check ’ as much as though 
we were playing a game, and trying to 
^ mate ’ each other with villany. 

To my inquiries I can only get the an- 
swer, ^ The case is filed. It must take its 
turn, and be decided on its merits.' Now 
it is two years since father died. I do not 
care so much for the money as that I regard 
it as a trust especially to be guarded and 
carried to a close for the sake of my sisters, 
who are women but poorly protected from 
vrant because they have a profession ; for 
if sickness overtook either of them, the 
other would not be able to support two. 
Besides, I have a pride in the matter. 
Lovely and accomplished as they are, as 


78 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

working women they cannot take the 
place in society to which they are en- 
titled.” 

Why, Will, this all seems rather foolish 
to me. It seems that you have allowed 
yourself to become morbid on the subject. 
You do not really need the money. Your 
position and income are assured in your 
business relations with ^ Judge ’ Bridges — 
that is to be ; and as for social position, I 
have that through papa, and your sisters 
are mine ; wherever I go, they can ; and I 
am quite sure that culture and ladyhood, 
and not occupation, fix one’s standard 
socially in Washington, especially outside 
of official circles. What care we for all 
that ? Haven’t we each other and every 
comfort we could desire, with as good so- 
ciety as we need outside of official life ? 
which has no special charms for me, its 
duties and demands are too onerous. In- 
deed, I have seen many wives of official 
people who were glad to get out of that 
stream into the quieter one that flows so 


A DISCOVERY. 


79 


placidly and respectably on, carrying on its 
bosom the good old families of refinement, 
who make Washington their permanent 
home, — people who know how to get the 
cream of social life, and let alone the 
skimmed milk ; glad to get into literary 
clubs where all the bright, intellectual peo- 
ple congregate, and where the official stand- 
ard is not the only one. You see there are 
reverse sides to every shield.” 

Yes, my dear, I agree to all you say ; 
but I seem utterly powerless to throw off 
this spell. It has been with the greatest 
difficulty that I have been able to conceal 
it from the girls. It adds to my de- 
spair to think that I shall, inevitably, 
have to cloud your bright life with its 
shadow.” 

Nonsense ! Come, let’s go somewhere. 
You must throw it off. Let it alone. 
Your agent will prosecute it better than 
you can ; just think it is none of your affair. 
He will do his best, never fear, as he is 
working for twenty per cent.” 


80 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


Perhaps so ; but when I consider all 
the ^ red tape ’ there is to cut or unwind ; 
that it must pass or be rejected by the De- 
partments, run the gantlet of the Court of 
Claims, perhaps have to go before a Con- 
gressional Committee, and teeter back 
and forth there, between the House and 
Senate, one perhaps taking it up this year, 
the other the next, and never both together, 
— I know of one claimant who has been 
twenty-four years prosecuting a spoliation 
claim that has passed one or the other of the 
houses of Congress sixteen times, to finally 
be vetoed by the President, when lucky 
enough to pass both, — I confess I feel like 
despair. It is so fixed in iny mind as a 
trust left by my father, that I shall prose- 
cute it until I’m gray, or dead.” 

Oh, don’t talk so. Will ! you make me 
feel creepy.” 

Well, now, you see what a hold it has 
upon me, don’t you ? ” 

Let’s go to the theatre to-night. It 
has stopped raining, I do believe ; and, 


A DISCOVERY. 


81 


anyway, we should take a cab, so what 
matter ? 

’Tis better to laugh than be sighing ; 

Tis better to hope than be crying,’’ 

she warbled in a lovely mezzo. 

Will jumped up, and cheerfully struck 
in with his rich baritone, the spell for the 
time being routed. 

After a two weeks' holiday and honey- 
moon, Will and Kate returned to Washing- 
ton, quite willing to come down to the plane 
upon which ordinary mortals live, who for 
the nonce neither marry nor are given in 
marriage. 

Kate’s parents, both being feeble and 
well on in years, insisted on giving up the 
house with all its contents to the young 
people, as a wedding present, reserving 
for themselves a suite of rooms on the 
second floor. Thus she at once came into 
the responsibilities of family life; but, 
haying virtually had them for some time 
before, she felt quite equal to the emer- 


82 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


gency, especially as she would have Will 
to help her. 

There was much in Kate’s home that 
was rare, beautiful, and precious, besides 
the furniture. Her father had followed 
the traditions of the army, that the best 
choice of a wife for an officer is, generally, 
an officer’s daughter. There are families 
in army and navy circles that can date 
their aristocratic records back to Revolu- 
tionary days. Such families have heir- 
looms : silver service, gold or silver 
medals” for distinguished services, which, 
though poor, they prefer to so much in 
cash as the value of it. 

Colonel Kerdolph had distinguished him- 
self in various Indian wars, and had gath- 
ered together quite a collection, illustrative 
of the life and habits of the aboriginal 
man; while Mrs. Kerdolph had as much 
pride in their possession as their actual 
owner, and she took such care of them 
that, old as they were, all were in a good 
state of preservation. 


A DISCOVERY. 


83 


Her manners were very high-bred and 
stately, as became an officer’s wife; and 
she took no little pride in keeping up her 
social status, on her husband’s half-pay as 
a retired officer, so that, apparently, it 
made no appreciable difference in their 
style of living, although there doubtless 
was economy somewhere. 

Kate had, in one sense, disappointed her 
parents. It was their desire that she should 
marry an army or naval officer, many of 
whom are always stationed in Washing- 
ton ; but since she would not avail herself 
of her privileges in that direction, they 
were glad that so unobjectionable a person 
as Will, a rising young lawyer, was chosen. 
They accepted the inevitable with a good 
grace, and received him with the cordiality 
due the husband of their only child, and 
a son. 

The first social event that Kate under- 
took after paying her wedding calls, was 
to give a musicale. There was Professor 
Carman and his wife ; Mr. Bridges’s lovely 


84 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


daughter, Laura, who possessed a rich con- 
tralto voice; Mr. Wells, a not’ed tenor; 
Mr. Daggett, a celebrated baritone ; and 
Will’s sisters, who also had good voices. 
The occasion would enable her to invite 
a number of people who were appreciators, 
if not performers ; and thus she could 
enter upon her social life, as a married 
woman, with much less trouble and risk 
than a reception or dinner party would 
involve. 

The eventful evening arrived, and with 
it her guests. Her mother and father had 
places of honor assigned them, for they 
were not the kind of people to be left to 
themselves if guests were in the house. 
Their old-fashioned, high-bred courtesy 
gave an air of distinction to Kate’s little 
parties always. Her father’s military bear- 
ing, and her mother in black velvet or satin, 
with soft, old laces on her hair and breast, 
was as pretty a picture of graceful old age 
as could be imagined. 

Laura Bridges arrived in company with 


A DISCOVERY. 


85 


her father, for between these two an affec- 
tion existed as rare as beautiful ; and, as 
she had no mother living, he made her 
his companion, — one who shared his con- 
fidence, and understood his ambitions and 
aims in life far better than many wives do 
their husbands’. 

Professor Carman and his professional 
wife came later, the professor with his pet 
violin case swinging in his hand. When 
she sung, he often accompanied the piano 
and voice with a ripple of stringed melody 
that was most ravishing. 

Jessie and Georgia were on hand, having 
been there to dinner; and Mr. Wells and 
Mr. Daggett were soon announced, closely 
followed by Senator Warner’s son, the 
usher whom Jessie and Georgia discussed 
the evening of the wedding. Several other 
people of both sexes also appeared, and the 
musical programme began. 

The professor and his wife played a kind 
of overture on the violin and piano, after 
which she sang delightfully an operatic air ; 


86 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

then there were tenor and baritone solos, 
followed by a duet by Kate and Jessie, 
after which the company fell into groups 
or teU-a-tete, 

Jessie found herself in the latter position 
with young Mr. Warner ; and, as she 
talked, she secretly admired his fine figure, 
his shapely head with curly brown hair, 
under which shone a pair of bright, but 
kind, blue eyes. He, evidently,, was desir- 
ous of making a good impression. 

Miss Peyton, I am charmed to find that 
you sing. Now I do not know one note 
from another, but I do know what pleases 
my ear. Do you sing ballads ? I am 
especially fond of Scotch ballads.” 

So am I,” replied she ; but Georgia, 
my sister, is a better ballad singer than I 
am.” 

wonder if she will favor us? It 
always strikes me like a refreshing breeze 
in the cool, summer woods, to hear an old 
ballad sung after a florid and intricate 
opera air, which calls for great execution. 


A DISCOVERY. 


87 


I like both ; but, probably for want of a 
cultivated ear, I prefer the simpler sorts of 
music, such as people sing at home, when 
everybody joins in the chorus.” 

The old songs do wear best, because 
they voice the pathos and feeling of human- 
ity just in song as in story,” replied Jessie, 
much interested. There is Georgia, now. 
Perhaps she will sing a Scotch ballad for 
you if you ask her.” 

I should be .delighted. Miss Georgia, 
your sister says you sing ballads divinely. 
Now I shall be most happy to conduct you 
to the piano, if you will favor us."” 

Certainly : I shall be pleased to do my 
part now, as well as another time, since 
that is what my sister Kate has me down 
for, ^ Within a Mile of Edinboro' Town,’ ” 
and going to the instrument, she sang 
that so exquisitely, that, in response to a 
demand for another, she gave, ^^The Lass 
o’ Gowrie.” 

By this time refreshments were an- 
nounced, and all repaired to the dining- 


88 WILLIS Peyton's inheritance. 


room, Mr. Warner taking Jessie out, and 
waiting upon her with the assiduity of a 
knight of old. In truth, he was very much 
in love with the beautiful young girl be- 
side him; and it cooled the fever in his 
blood to fly about in her behalf, proffering 
her every dainty. 

Such suppers, where light refreshments 
are washed down with chocolate or coffee, 
are not worthy of a special description, 
since everybody knows all about them, and 
that a collation, like good music, has a 
wonderful tendency to loosen the tongue. 
Even a cup of coffee, with plain cake, 
should always be a concomitant of any 
event that would be a success, from a 
church social to musicales or other small 
parties, as every successful hostess knows. 
We may talk of purely intellectual enter- 
tainments ; but so long as men and women 
are not intellectual, and nothing else, eat- 
ing will be accessory to sociability. 

By the time the evening was over, young 
Warner had inwardly resolved that he 


A DISCOVERY. 


89 


would win Jessie if he could, though he 
knew there would be a good-sized lion in 
the way on account of the prejudices of 
his aristocratic mother, as he had acciden- 
tally learned that Miss Peyton was a kinder- 
garten teacher and a working girl, one of a 
class upon whom his mother looked as in- 
ferior beings, — beings with feelings a little 
less refined and sensitive than her own. 
As for her son choosing such a person for a 
wife, the idea was not to be considered for 
a moment. Now, strange as it may seem, 
mother and son had never exchanged a 
word on the subject, yet he, knowing her 
haughty bearing and her exclusive tastes, 
saw trouble ahead just as clearly as though 
there had been. All the same, his mind, 
so firm, like his honored father’s, was made 
up ; and somehow, some time, he meant to 
have it out with his mother, if he could 
first win Jessie. 

Of course Jessie was quite oblivious of 
all this thought about herself. She only 
knew a very distinguished-looking young 


90 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

man was paying her attentions that were 
very agreeable to receive. If she had had 
an idea that anybody, even his mother, 
would object to them, she would scorn- 
fully have found a way to send him about 
his business ; for she so truly respected her- 
self that she felt she vras in no sense, save 
position, inferior to even a Mrs. Senator. 

Will cheerfully acquiesced when Claude 
Warner offered to save him the trouble of 
escorting his sisters to their home. At the 
door, he asked for the privilege of calling 
upon them at some future time, which was 
granted without scruple. Aunt Martha 
Frank, their father’s widowed sister, had 
come on to make her home with them 
(she having no children), and they were 
only too glad to have her company and 
motherly care. She did not go to Kate’s 
musicale, as she was suffering with a cold, and 
thought the home fireside the best place for 
her under the circumstances. Feeling her 
position as chaperone, she had not retired, but 
received the girls at the door on their return. 


CHAPTER VII. 


COMPLEXITIES, 



R. BRIDGES had met the one great 


1 \ X temptation of his life ; that is, if to 
reach the goal of one’s ambition is to be 
.considered as among the temptations. 

He had been offered a high judicial posi- 
tion, — one that would eminently have 
satisfied an honorable ambition, — and had 
deliberately set it aside. He had opinions 
not quite free enough from bias to be 
considered judicial ; nor were they quite in 
accord with those of the president appoint- 
ing him. Therefore, being a man of an 
unusually keen sense of integrity, he re- 
luctantly felt obliged, after due deliberation, 
to decline the honor. 

Laura knew all the points of doubt in 
his mind. She shared in his ambition, but 


91 


92 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

she was prouder of her father in his 
declination than she would have been in 
his acceptance of the high position. Noth- 
ing further could be said of a daughter’s 
loyalty and devotion. She actually made 
him feel ashamed, she so idealized and 
adored him as the most perfect of men. 
What could she really know of his life, 
the life a man shows to his wife ? He had 
loved his wife with an affection amounting 
to romance, and yet she, he felt, must have 
seen his imperfections, such as lie hidden 
from the world in the nature of every man, 
the very best. Still, Laura’s adoration was 
very sweet to him, and it kept him from 
forming new ties, lest he might alienate or 
wound so unusual a love. 

This morning he had just come into the 
office, where he found Will already deeply 
interested in a case to come up soon in the 
criminal court. 

Have you decided, judge ? ” 

Yes : you will have to call me colonel, 
or major, or something of that sort, since 


COMPLEXITIES. 


93 


I cannot conscientiously accept, and I will 
not do so otherwise/’ 

You astound me ! Going to throw over 
such an opportunity as that ? ” 

I must” 

A light seemed to dawn upon Will’s 
mind : the comprehension of the character 
of a man whose integrity could neither be 
bought nor sold. There he stood, the most 
honest man, truly, that he had ever seen ; 
one of a hundred.- His admiring wonder 
grew ; and, seizing the Hon. Mr. Bridges’s 
hand, he wrung it, saying, sincerely 
honor your judgment and character.” 

The older man was touched, and his eyes 
moistened. 

^^Well, well, we can live without office, 
but I own I would rather have sacrificed 
many thousands a year to have sat upon 
that bench, if I could; but I couldn’t, and 
there’s the end of it. 

How are you getting on with that 
case ? ” he continued. It is set for next 
Monday, I believe. If you find any diffi- 


94 WILLIS Peyton’s inheeitance. 

culty about making up the argument, come 
to me ; otherwise not, as I do not care to 
appear in it if I can help myself.” 

The Hon. Mr. Bridges went out. No 
sooner was he gone than Will dropped off 
into one of those moody silences which 
came all too often when he was alone, and 
his attention distracted for a moment from 
his work, whatever it might be. 

Presently Mr. Bridges returned, but Will 
was so lost in revery that he did not 
arouse. His friend gave him a searching 
look. It was not the first time he had 
seen him under the numbing influence of 
those dark moods. He felt that it was a 
delicate matter to speak to him about, but 
somehow he must be made to feel that an 
unhealthy despondency always has a ten- 
dency to undermine and weaken the facul- 
ties; that it would lay a paralyzing hand 
upon a man’s success, and prevent him 
from grasping what an inferior man with 
a cheerful temperament might. Being an 
astute legist, accustomed to reading human 


COMPLEXITIES. 


95 


character, he had observed enough of Will’s 
marital relations to be assured that there 
was no trouble there. It must be that 
tantalizing, gigantic claim of his father’s. 
Of all things to harass, depress, and worry 
a man, a big claim against the Government 
is the worst. No wonder the claim agents 
haunt the Congressional halls, the depart- 
ments, and courts, waiting, waiting, wait- 
ing for money justly due their clients ; 
waiting, waiting, waiting for fees justly 
due them until, little by , little, they grow 
poorer and poorer, credit gone, cursed by 
their clients, denounced as harpies, vam- 
pires, jackals, by the Government that 
withholds, on one pretext or another, money 
justly due men and women who have sacri- 
ficed their all that it might live. All this 
because it is an exceptional case,” not 
provided for by statutory law.” See the 
French Spoliation Claims, the Mexican 
Border Claim, the Wiel Claim, and thou- 
sands of minor claims; when the waiting 
heirs die, others step into their places ; attor- 


96 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


neys die, become insane, or take to drink, 
utterly ruined by that ignis fatuus that 
lures them on ; and all the while a surplus 
in the United States Treasury ! Some of 
it, long years since appropriated by arbi- 
tration,” that highest of earthly tribunals, 
to pay those very claims. 

It is a fearful arraignment ; and were an 
individual debtor to act with the dilatori- 
ness, the suspicion, the undue caution, which 
the Government exercises, it would be de- 
nounced as infamous. Verily, republics 
are ungrateful now, as in the past. 

Thus soliloquized Mr. Bridges, as he 
furtively watched Will’s mood. Presently 
he said, Willis, how is that claim of your 
father’s getting along ? Any progress ? 
I hope it is not troubling you.” 

^^It is not getting on at all,” said Will, 
rousing himself with an effort. “They 
will do nothing with it in the departments, 
my father’s loyalty not being enough, as 
mine is in question now. It seems I not 
only nearly broke his dear old heart by 


COMPLEXITIES. 


97 


going with my State, as I felt obliged to, 
but I am destined, as a reward for having 
acted conscientiously, to have the penalty 
wreaked upon the unoffending women of 
the family. They are not politicians, 
voters, or fighters ; but, because I was, they 
must lose their inheritance.” 

Come, come, don’t look at the matter 
in that light ! It is a morbid view you 
are taking. Let me advise you to have 
patience. Perhaps a little personal atten- 
tion given to the matter before the Congres- 
sional Committee might expedite matters. 
Likely enough the agent has used up his 
last dollar in pushing his claims through. 
If he must have a ^retainer’ to go on, 
draw on me, young man. I’ve no doubt 
you will live to repay it with interest. 
Only I do not like to see you grow moody 
over it. Besides, to encourage that sort of 
thing by indulgence, always works harm 
in a man’s business relations ; prevents 
success when it is most needed. You must 
put it out of your mind until this case is 


98 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

off our hands. I am satisfied the wrong 
man is indicted for murder, but it is going 
to take skilful arguing to make the jury 
see it. You will need all your faculties 
wide awake to do it, for I mean to let you 
have all the glory of this victory. To get 
it, you will have to fight for it. Therefore 
you will excuse me for being so plain in 
speaking to you.” 

Indeed, I will,” said the young man in 
reply. I realize that I have no better 
friend or wiser counsellor in all the world 
than you are, and I will do my best to 
win this case, and throw off this horrible 
spell that sometimes inthralls me.” 

Soon the Hon. Mr. Bridges took his 
leave, and Will began to consult authori- 
ties in making up his case. He had not 
long been so engaged before he was inter- 
rupted by a call from Mr. Warner. 

Digging away, old fellow, are you ? 
I hope to graduate myself soon. If I 
pass, I shall go West, and grow up with 
the country, for there are not many such 


COMPLEXITIES. 


99 


chances as you have had to go into 
business in a settled community like 
this.” 

‘‘1 am well aware of that, and trust I 
appreciate my privileges. Can I do any- 
thing for you to-day ? ” 

Well, yes, possibly. Knowing that 
you are a Southern type of man, I’ve paid 
my respects to you first, as the natural 
guardian of your charming sisters, to 
ask your permission to address your sister 
Jessie.” 

Hadn’t you better wait until you are 
established ? I should not be willing that 
my sister should form such an alliance, 
even prospectively, with a person so unob- 
jectionable as yourself, unless I was assured 
he could give her a good home.” 

I presume I might wait, if I would or 
could. I am not made on the deliberate 
plan. If you consent to my addressing 
her, all right; if not, I should admire afar 
until she is of legal age ; when, this being 
a free country, I shall try my chances, and. 


100 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

she being * willing, I would defy the world, 
or — her brother.” 

Will smiled. He had been in love him- 
self, and he really did like Claude, and 
had no doubt of his future ability to main- 
tain a wife; so he said, Well, old fellow, 
since your heart is set upon it, I give you 
my blessing, but am by no means so sure of 
Jessie. She is a proud, independent, self- 
respecting young woman, and your family 
will have to receive her as one of themselves, 
if at all. However, you can try your luck.” 

Thank you, thank you ! Give me your 
hand on that. My family will either 
receive any wife I take as one of them- 
selves, or they can dispense with me. I 
should go with her in that case.” 

You do not know Jessie. She will never 
have you, or any one else, until she is cor- 
dially received ; that is, if she would have 
you anyhow, for she is not a ripe peach, to 
drop into the arms of the first man who 
comes along, and says he likes peaches and 


cream. 


COMPLEXITIES. 


101 


All the better for her. I would not 
like a woman too easy to win. She might 
not wear well.’' 

So saying, he put on his hat, rushed 
downstairs three steps at a time, and out 
into the street, along a block or two at a 
tearing pace; round the corner of Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue, up toward New York Ave- 
nue, for he knew that Jessie’s school, in that 
quiet neighborhood, closed about two, and 
if he hurried he might overtake her on her 
way home, as he had done many times 
before. It was clear that they were at 
least very good friends. 

On he went, meeting acquaintances, but 
merely bowing and passing. What does 
an ardent young man in love want with 
mere acquaintances, anyhow? He over- 
took her just as she entered the northeast 
corner of Franklin Square. 

Mocking-birds were singing in the maple- 
trees, and the pecans and magnolias cast 
their beauty and fragrance on the April 
air, while beds of hyacinths of all colors, 


102 WILLIS PEYTOlSr’s INHEKITANCE. 

tulips, daffodils, and jonquils, bordered 
many a circle with their loveliness. 

Together they walked to a seat near the 
fountain in the centre, where, in a few 
simple, manly words, he told his love, and 
asked her for her hand. 

She was not quite overcome with sur- 
prise, for, with a maiden’s intuition, she 
had felt it coming. Still, now that she 
knew that he was her lover, she was not 
quite sure enough of herself to answer 
him as he wished. She could only say as 
yet, like you, thoroughly respect you, 
but do not know whether I can love you 
or not. You must give me time to exam- 
ine myself,” — blushing sweetly, for she 
was usually so pale that a blush on her 
cheek looked like the petal of a soft pink 
rose. He was satisfied for the time. It 
was quite as much as he could expect from 
a girl of her cool type. She never looked 
lovelier in his eyes than when giving him 
half an answer. 

On resuming their walk, he unfolded all 


COMPLEXITIES. 


103 


his plans and prospects, at the very last 
saying, I feel bound to tell you that my 
mother would probably be opposed to my 
choice until she knew you, but I think I 
can bring her over.” 

“ Say no more, dear friend. Your mother 
must willingly accept me as her daughter, 
or I will not accept her son.” 

Defiant as this speech was, it seemed to 
be as a sweet morsel to Claude. First, it 
admitted that she probably would, all 
things being favorable, accept his suit. 
Such is the way in which a young man 
very much smitten finds consolation, even 
in adversity. But Jessie had no idea that 
in saying what she did about his mother 
she had made any admissions at all. 

They reached the little house at last, 
and Jessie said, Come in, will you not ? 
We must tell Aunty Frank about it. She 
is the same as a mother to us girls ; and 
you will find that she is a reasonable being, 
if I am not, on some things we’ve been 
talking about.” 


104 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


He went in, and did not come out again 
until after the five-o’clock dinner. 

Aunt Frank knew Jessie better than that 
young lady knew herself. A certain maid- 
enly reserve, a something indefinable, kept 
the young girl from owning what she felt. 
At heart she really did like Claude very 
much, but she did not like the possible 
attitude of the mother who might be 
hers-in-law ; ” consequently. Aunty Frank 
kept Claude there with a veiled, womanly 
tact that did more for his success than any 
words she might have spoken to Jessie in 
the way of advice. Besides, she heartily 
believed in a genuine affection. If it was 
there, no friend would be needed at court, 
or elsewhere, to say so for those most 
interested. She simply contented herself 
with making things pleasant for all without 
fussiness. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

MOTHER AND SON. 

I N some houses the dining-room seems to 
be, if not the battle-ground of the family, 
the place where the opinions of its members 
are most freely ventilated. The fault-find- 
ing person always sees material to vent his 
sarcasms upon with the inevitable mishaps 
that occur in the cuisine of most households 
at times, such as under-done pork, over-done 
roast beef, slack-baked biscuit, or burnt 
bread. Minds of opposite bias, especially if 
they are male minds, clash on politics or reli- 
gion, while personal likings and dislikings 
are freely discussed. 

There is a great deal said and written 
about cheerfulness at the table being pro- 
ductive of digestion, but some persons seem 
to have a theory that does not square with 

105 


106 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

their practice ; and many a little hostess 
has been sitting on figurative pins and 
needles^ when she has seen those of her 
household who, by consanguinity, ought to 
be good friends, on the verge of pitching 
into each other’s opinions with a free lance, 
likely to draw some blood, at the family 
table. 

In the household of Senator Warner, 
there was usually a well-bred reticence on 
tabooed subjects, a respect for others’ opin- 
ions that avoided captious criticism, although 
it was plainly to be seen that that popular 
senator did not always agree with his better- 
half on social topics, which she, with good 
nature, declared ‘^he knew nothing about.” 
How could he, being so much occupied with 
public business ? while her best eifforts in 
life were given to understanding the social 
code in the polite society of Washington, 
and fulfilling her duties therein. 

Mrs. Warner and Claude lingered over 
their coffee after the senator had finished 
his breakfast and gone to his private room 


MOTHER AND SON. 


107 


with his secretary, discussing a reception of 
the evening before given by one of the 
diplomatic corps. 

Claude, I notice that you are not prompt 
in your attendance at such places, as you 
once were. You are devoting yourself too 
exclusively, I fear, to your studies. Situ- 
ated as we are, it is not necessary for you 
to give all your leisure to study. Society 
has advantages not to be ignored, and there 
are some charming young girls that I wish 
you would cultivate.’’ 

^^Dear mamma, haven’t you yet discov- 
ered that I care very little for the average 
^ charming young girl ’ ? ” 

But you should. It’s a grave defect, a 
want of taste on your part, not to do so. 
There are really so few young men who can 
afford to devote as much time to society 
as you can, that you ought to attend more 
of these afternoons in senatorial and official 
salons, and be a leader of the German, or a 
noted figure in the ^ Lancers.’ ” 

Truly, a noble ambition ! No, I thank 


108 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

you; I do not care for such distinction. 
Let the young army and naval officers, who 
have nothing else to do, display their uni- 
forms, agility, and gallantry all at the 
same time. I have no ambition or call for 
a Chesterfieldian vocation.” 

It is strange you do not care more for 
the charms of society, after all the pains I 
have taken to give you every accomplish- 
ment befitting your station.” 

Perhaps if I had been a daughter, I 
might have improved my opportunities 
better.” 

Oh, I almost forgot something I meant 
to say this morning. Yesterday, when 
driving out on K Street, near Fourteenth, I 
saw you promenading with a very pretty 
girl, evidently not in our set ; she was not 
stylish enough for that. I hope you are 
not getting entangled with acquaintances 
that will be difficult to get away from.” 

Claude flushed hotly. ^^Well, dear 
mamma, I presume that when a young man 
is twenty-three, as I am, he is old enough 


MOTHER AND SON. 


109 


to know a lady when he meets' her, whether 
she be in an official circle or not. That 
particular young woman happens to be 
most charming ; I only wish you knew her.’’ 

Who is she ? You speak warmly, and 
pique my curiosity.” 

Nothing would be easier than to gratify 
it. She is Miss Jessie Peyton, sister to the 
young man who is associated with the Hon- 
orable Mr. Bridges in practice of the law. 
She and her sister reside with a widowed 
aunt out Fourteenth Street, near Meridian 
Hill. You have only to call or send your 
card. I really wish you would ; for I con- 
fess to a deep interest in the young lady, 
whom I met at her brother’s wedding last 
winter in Epiphany, where I acted as usher, 
with several other good fellows, friends of 
his.” 

You surely do not mean that you are in 
earnest f ” 

I do, indeed ; I am very much in ear- 
nest, never more so in my life. I have 
asked the young lady’s brother for permis- 


110 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

sion to address her, and since I’ve asked 
her for her hand. It all depends, she says, 
on the attitude of my family toward her. 
She is worthy, if she is comparatively ob- 
scure, to grace any station ; and those not 
willing to receive her may as well say good- 
by to me,” spoke up Claude, with flashing 
eyes. 

Oh ! ” screamed Mrs. Warner, and fell 
over in a state that looked so alarming ‘that 
Claude was frightened. Giving the bell- 
pull a jerk, he summoned her maid, and 
rushed out after a doctor, with whom he 
soon returned. 

Mrs. Warner, being past middle life, was 
no longer a sylph in figure. Her maid had, 
with the help of the senator, who rushed 
in, alarmed at the noise, lifted her on to the 
sofa in the sitting-room, where she lay with 
clinched teeth, rigid limbs, and rolled-up, 
half-shut eyes, the picture of death in a 
most hideous guise. 

Claude and the doctor appeared upon the 
scene ; and that astute practitioner lowered 


MOTHER AND SON. 


Ill 


his eyes softly and swallowed, as if he in- 
wardly said, I know all about it ; I’ve met 
such cases in my varied experience before. 
No danger, no danger,” while he outwardly 
expressed great concern for the alarming 
condition of the patient. 

She has been laboring under some great 
and sudden excitement, hasn’t she ? ” said 
he. 

Claude colored, and said, Yes, possibly. 
We were discussing social questions, when 
she suddenly fell- over with an outcry, and 
into this state.” 

The maid kept on chafing her hands, and 
the doctor prepared something in the way 
of a restorative, and forced it between her 
teeth ; but she could not swallow. Nothing 
seemed to do any good ; for hours she lay 
as if stupefied or paralyzed, but at last she 
threw up her arms wildly, and returned to 
reviving life with a scream that sent a thrill 
of horror through those who heard, so un- 
earthly was it. 

Keep her quiet ; don’t let her become 


112 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

agitated. She will be better soon, I think ; 
but the slightest excitement will cause a 
relapse, the consequences of which may be 
serious. I will call again before bed-time.” 

Claude went out with him. Doctor, 
what is it ? I could see no reason why my 
mother should fall into that state because 
of anything I was saying, although I will 
not deny that we were both a little excited, 
but not more so than we have been often 
before on various subjects. Somehow, I am 
not quite in sympathy with my mother on 
the social side of life. I assure you it was 
nothing more.” 

Well, let it be a lesson to you, young 
man, not to cross your mother with impu- 
nity. At her age, a gentleman should 
always be as tender and regardful of a 
woman’s feelings as though she were sweet 
sixteen. They are about as easy to under- 
stand, full of whims, and must be treated 
with consideration. You understand ? ” 

Medical men often feel justified and in 
duty bound to indulge in such plainness of 
speech. 


MOTHER AND SON. 


113 


Claude loved his mother tenderly, if 
they did occasionally disagree, and he prom- 
ised the doctor that he would endeavor 
to be more careful hereafter. Going in, he 
sat down on a hassock beside his mother, 
and kissed her hands, calling her many 
fondly foolish names, at which she smiled 
pathetically, as much so as so plump a 
creature could. 

Claude, you will drop that odious girl, 
for my sake ? I have other plans for you, 
my son.” 

After what the doctor had said to him, 
what could he do ? Not refuse, and throw 
her . into another fit of hysteria; and as 
for denying or denouncing Jessie, he would 
cut his manly tongue out before he would 
forswear her. Therefore, he deliberately 
acted a lie by pressing that clammy hand 
within his own, and his lips firmly together, 
with an inward vow of constancy to the 
one he loved best. Yes, he knew it now. 
He loved her better than the mother that 
bore him. Greater love than this has no 


114 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

man for a woman. Jessie was safe in his 
heart ; but he realized that no stone would 
be left unturned by his mother, to break up 
the match between them, so proud and 
imperious was she. 

The senator, finding her quietly sleeping, 
went away, marvelling much that, after 
these long years, and when they were quite 
out of fashion, the wife of his bosom, the 
most conventional of women, had allowed 
herself in a fit of passion to fall into hyster- 
ics, — a fit ” that, once having been seen, 
no one could ever again be mistaken in, or 
imposed upon by its recurrence and vaga- 
ries. He had noticed, also, that the doctor, 
while expressing great interest in the case, 
had not apparently been alarmed; he was 
probably another man who knew the baffling 
disease at sight, and that it seldom killed, 
although it might result in insanity. 

Going to the door and seeing Claude 
beside her, he beckoned to him tq come out. 
Closing the door softly, and motioning him 
to a chair, he said, — 


MOTHER AXD SON. 115 

What were you talking about with your 
mother, Claude, when she ^ collapsed ’ ? ” 

It is dreadful to own it, but that grave 
senator actually fell into slang in alluding 
to the condition of his wife. No one knew 
better her fine points, and, in a way, she 
was dear to him. No one knew her weak- 
nesses more clearly than he ; but, up to 
this moment, he had never unbent his dig- 
nity so much as the line of a hair as to own 
it to his son by word or look.. He was 
reticence personified; nor did he mean to 
now, but he must know what excited her 
so. That last time it was jealousy of him, 
not altogether without cause ; and then she 
never let up her tantrums ” until he had 
broken the bond that had bound him. 
What could Claude have done ? 

Claude was so much shocked to hear his 
father use the word collapse” in regard 
to what looked to his inexperienced eyes 
like a serious case, that he had to pause to 
consider what he had best say ; for he 
never remembered to have heard his father 


116 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

speak flippantly before of his mother, and 
he feared the old gentleman’s wits might 
be wandering. Such are the revelations in 
family life that come to the surface in 
sudden crises. 

Well, father, I did not see anything to 
upset mamma in what I was saying. She 
was calling me to account for walking 
with a charming young lady to whom I 
am as good as engaged.” 

Engaged ? you sly puppy ! No wonder 
it threw her off her pins. Who is she? 
I must have a hand in it, if it is anything 
so serious as that.” 

^^She is a perfectly respectable person; 
a sister to a rising young lawyer in 
Bridges’s office, — beautiful and accom- 
plished as even my lady mother. Her 
only misfortune is that she is, for the pres- 
ent, poor; but the family are Virginians, 
and have a hundred-thousand-dollar pro- 
spective claim against the Government. 
Her father was loyal, but her brother was 
on the other side ; therefore they are likely 


MOTHEK AND SON. 


117 


to remain poor for some time, as no claims 
are paid with a taint of disloyalty about 
the claimants, either with or without spe- 
cial legislation. In the mean time, my fiancee 
is a kindergarten teacher, and I honor her 
for it ; but she is as proud as a queen, and 
will scorn me unless I can bring my family 
to receiving her cordially. That is the 
condition of my acceptance on that point.’’ 
He paused for breath. 

His father swung round on his swivel 
chair, with his fingers interlaced medita- 
tively across his rotund stomach. I see, 
I see ! Yes, no doubt that did astound 
my lady. I sympathize with you, you sly 
dog, you ; but we will have to be very 
cautious how we approach your mamma 
on the subject ; that is, I see no objection 
to the girl. I do not believe but that you 
will find a better wife in her, if you can 
overcome her scruples as to being received 
by uSy than you would in the belle of the 
ball-room. It is rather comical, this having 
an obscure young chit making terms about 


118 WILLIS Peyton's inheritance. 

us. Most girls would take you on any 
terms, so anxious are they to get into 
circles a little above their level." 

She is not a ^ chit/ father, nor is she 
that kind of a girl. She is as cool, inde- 
pendent, and self-respecting a person as 
I have ever seen in any circle, and bewitch- 
ing as cool." 

No doubt of it ! no doubt of it, at all. 
I see you are a chip of the old block. 
Just like me. Never fear, my boy. You 
will get her yet ; but my advice is based 
upon some experience of life. You had 
better not tell her just yet of this little 
contretemps here, or how your mother feels 
about it. Leave it to time and accident. 
Accident is often wiser than design. In 
the mean time, be very attentive to your 
mother. If she is imperious, she is a very 
loving woman, and at bottom sensible. 

^^You had best be conciliatory and pa- 
tient, since I am on your side, and should be 
pleased to be introduced some day to your 
spirited young lady, at the Capitol." 


MOTHER AND SON. 


119 


Thanks, governor. You have won my 
eternal admiration and gratitude. I didn’t 
know you had so much heart about you. 
I say it with all due respect.” 

^^No, I suppose not. We older folks, in 
young thoughts, are supposed to be burned- 
out volcanoes, desert wastes of affection, 
while in truth we are only, the oldest of 
us, big boys on our dignity. Circumstances 
prove us sometimes to be as inflammable 
as so much tow.” 

Claude, having seen both parents in new 
roles, went out to walk, cool off, and think 
it over. 


CHAPTEK IX. 


WILLIS AND HIS TKIUMPH. 


ILLIS PEYTON threw himself into 



the criminal suit in which the firm 


was engaged with all the ardor of a young 
man desirous not only to defend his client 
from injustice, but to carve his name one 
round higher on the ladder of fame. 

Looking into the case, he found that the , 
young man was probably in danger of los- 
ing his life; but to prove his innocence 
would require painstaking, direct reasoning 
from one point to another, proved up, step 
by step, so that the most dull of jurymen 
could see it with convincing power. How 
he worked in making up the defence ! He 
felt obliged to account for his client’s time 
from hours before the murder up to the 
very moment and act. In going over the 


120 


WILLIS AND HIS TRIUMPH. 121 


argument with Mr. Bridges, he was con- 
gratulated upon the directness and forcible- 
ness of the points he had taken. 

I can hardly conceive of a jury, even 
if prejudiced, that could withstand that, or 
a judge who would construe the law for 
conviction on such a statement. I predict. 
Will, that this case will establish your 
fame in th^ criminal practice, the most 
difficult field in the law, since society, in 
its wrath at the horrors of a crime, some- 
times seems to think the criminal beyond 
the line of justifiable defence, and the law- 
yer who takes it up, obnoxious.’' 

The client’s case was something like 
this : One night a young man of good 
habits and well esteemed was on his way to 
visit his sweetheart. In passing through an 
open square, where buildings were only on 
one side of the street, he was waylaid and 
deliberately murdered, on the public high- 
way, in a fast-becoming fashionable quarter 
of the city. As he fell, he cried out ; and 
a policeman not far off, ran to the spot, to 


122 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

find a man bending over the body, with a 
bloody knife in his hand, the victim already 
dead. True, the man coolly arose and 
said, I was about to enter a house across 
the way, when I heard a scuffle and an 
outcry. I ran over here, found this knife 
sticking in this man s heart, which I pulled 
out, and the blood spurted over me as you 
see.” * 

Come along ! You are a cool one ; but 
I will beat your brains out with my club if 
you try to resist me until I can bring help 
here,” said the policeman, seizing him by 
the collar with one hand, and putting his 
whistle to his mouth with the other, when 
he blew such a blast as brought two or 
more of his comrades to the spot within a 
very few moments. 

All right, cap’n, I will go along without 
trouble; for I tell you truly that I had 
nothing to do with killing this man. I 
came over at his cry of distress out of pure 
humanity ; but, as I came, I saw three men 
running away in that direction. I was 


WILLIS AND HIS TRIUMPH. 123 


simply going to make an evening visit, 
nothing more, when this unfortunate affair 
occurred.” 

Murderers are generally glib liars, but 
you are the coolest one I ever came across 
yet. Bob, let’s put the bracelets on him, 
before he gives us the slip.” 

Thus George Morrison was summarily 
disposed of, while the murdered man was car- 
ried into a drug-store close at hand, a great 
crowd having collected like grasshoppers 
from no one knew whither. Crowds thus 
come together in cities, when pale death 
rides by on a pistol shot or the point of a dirk, 
and when the fire-fiend casts ruddy gleams 
of destruction across the midnight sky. 

The police were baffled ; the prisoner was 
such a peaceable, respectable-looking man, 
not quite up to their standard of gentleman, 
but his very appearance conciliated the 
public as soon as they had seen him. The 
cold-bloodedness of the affair, so early in 
the evening, no motive apparent, — it was 
a most curious case, with a veil of mystery 


124 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

about it that only the romancers tried to 
solve ; and they said that there must be a 
woman at the bottom of it, with, possibly, 
jealousy as its motive. 

No traces of any other person near the vic- 
tim could be found up to the day of the trial. 

That day of fate arrived. The prisoner 
was calm, and to his lawyer’s satisfaction 
had accounted for all his actions during 
the day of the crime ; and Willis set about 
the Herculean task of finding witnesses to 
prove every statement. 

If you are not a criminal lawyer, you 
will have no idea of the immense difficulty 
of proving up one’s conduct for even a 
whole day. Simple, personal statement 
will not do. The witnesses seem suddenly 
to have been affected by a spell, and dis- 
perse to the ends of the earth ; others take 
that important time of all others to die, 
having said nothing of what they know, 
and now never can reveal it until the dead 
give up their secrets. Others grow timid, 
conceal themselves, or are careful not to 


WILLIS AND HIS TRIUMPH. 125 

say anything,” lest they have to appear 
on the stand ; while still others deliberately 
lie, to pay off an old score, or to make sure 
that blood for blood is spilt, according to 
the Mosaic law. 

The steps, how-ever, had been traced, 
and the links of defence firmly welded 
into an argument that satisfied as astute 
a mind as ever grappled with criminal 
practice, — the Hon. Samuel Bridges. He 
and Willis found their way into the court- 
room in the City Hall on the eventful 
morning. The judge was on the bench; 
the lawyers arrayed around the bar; the 
jury filed in, and went to their box at the 
judge’s right hand, and sat themselves 
down in a row where they could see and 
hear everything going on ; the prisoner 
came in, escorted by a bailiff, and took his 
seat by his lawyer. 

The prosecuting attorney arose, and 
stated the case. He expatiated upon the 
terrible shock to the community by the 
sudden taking off” of so young and 


126 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

inoffensive a life. He had tried, he said, 
to find some motive for the crime, but had 
been utterly powerless to do so. Every 
efiort had been used to trace out the men 
that the prisoner alleged he saw running 
away, but no discoveries had, to his knowl- 
edge, been made. He appealed to the jury 
to look at the facts, and then, as fellow- 
men, subject to similar peril, to say what 
should be done. 

Here Willis made an objection” to 
having appeals to the feelings of the jury 
made at this stage of the proceedings. 
The judge sustained the objection, there- 
upon the attorney simply said, I have 
stated the case. The circumstances all 
point to the prisoner at the bar as the 
murderer. If he is not, the burden of 
proof lies upon his counsel, as this court 
has no object in view but to see that sim- 
ple justice is given to . every man. If 
guilty, judgment; if not, that freedom 
from penalty to which he is entitled ; ” 
and then he sat down. 


WILLIS AND HIS TRIUMPH. 127 


Willis arose, and calmly stated that he 
should endeavor to prove his client’s inno- 
cence, which he proposed doing by the 
mouth of witnesses. 

At the summons of the court they came 
in, and were examined and cross-examined ; 
but all the while the climax was approach- 
ing. Willis grew pale with excitement as 
his last witness was called, and took his 
place on the stand. He was a respectable 
white man, a mechanic in a plain working- 
suit. Honesty was written on every line 
of his well-bronzed face. Perhaps it was 
no special merit that he was honest and 
upright, since he ,was born so ; and the 
jury, to a man, was impressed by his 
appearance. They felt that what he would 
have to tell, no cross-examination would be 
likely to shake. There was an air of self- 
respect about the man for the lawyers’ 
quibbling to grapple with. 

The man being sworn, Willis said, — 
Where were you on the night of the 
murder ? ” 


128 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

I was on my way home from a grocery 
store, about two squares from where I 
live.” 

^‘Do you know anything about this 
murder ? ” 

I do.” 

^^What do you know?” 

On the evening of the murder, I was 
on my way from the grocery, and in a 
great hurry. I cut across a vacant lot. 
When about half-way across, I saw three 
colored men coming east on the open side 
of the street, and opposite to them I saw 
a man walking briskly, so that they came 
together about half-way of the square. 
When they met, I saw the single man 
throw up his arms with a sharp cry ; and, 
as he fell, those ruffians rah away as fast 
as they could, while a man standing at the 
steps of a house across the way ran down, 
on hearing the noise, to the prostrate man. 
I hurried away as fast as I could, for it 
was a case of life and death with me, just 
having had a telegram from my folks that 


WILLIS AND Ills TRIUMPH. 129 


my father was dying, and wished, if possi- 
ble, to see me once more. I did not want 
to be detained, all my arrangements having 
been made to start for the West on the 
ten-o’clock train.” 

^^What had you been to the grocery 
for ? ” 

^^To get credit for my family supplies 
until my return.” 

Why did you not let some one hear from 
you? You must have seen something of 
the mystery about this murder in the 
papers ? ” 

I did not read the papers for several 
days — indeed, for a week — after reaching 
my father’s house. There was death and 
the funeral ; but as soon as I arrived home, 
which was only a few days ago, I did make 
known to lawyer Peyton what I knew, 
and my desire to testify, hoping to save 
an innocent man ; for I saw those three 
colored men I spoke of fall upon that single 
man, and murder him.” 

How do you know they were colored 


130 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

men, and the murdered man a white 
man ? ” 

Well, those three had been singin’ only 
a little while before they caught sight of 
the man they killed. No one can mistake 
a darkey s singin ; and they walked with 
the shamblin’ gait that the lower classes 
of colored people do. The other man, he 
looked and walked brisker, with a firmer 
tread, like a nervous white man.” 

Being through his statement, he was 
submitted to a most searching cross-exami- 
nation by the prosecuting attorney, who 
tried every device known to the law to 
shake his assertions, but without avail. 
His straightforward, unvarnished tale was 
most convincing that the man at the har 
was not the murderer. 

At its conclusion, there broke out a 
ripple of irrepressible applause, calling 
forth the judge’s prompt Silence ! ” 

When Willis rose to present his argu- 
ment, there was a breathless silence in the 
court-room. He had no need to make a 


WILLIS AND HIS TRIUMPH. 


131 


special appeal to the jury. In a few elo- 
quent words he submitted the case. 

The prosecuting attorney rose as he sat 
down, and bowing to the judge and to 
Will with dignity, said, The district sub- 
mits the case without further argument.’' 

The judge then explained what consti- 
tuted circumstantial evidence, the weight 
to be given to it, the demands of society 
for protection through severe penalties for 
the taking of life ; and added, If the 
proof is sufficient, the prisoner should have 
the benefit of it, even if the murder was 
for the time shrouded in mystery. Accord- 
ing to the laws of God, and experience, 
most obscure murders, even after years of 
silence, come to light through some little 
loop left by the assassin. With that they 
have, nothing to do ; but with the man 
arraigned at the bar, was he guilty, or 
not? If so, convict him; if not, release 
him.” 

The jury arose and filed out, while every- 
body sat down with an air of expectancy, 


132 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

for the prisoner’s innocence of the crime 
was patent to all. 

They had not long to wait. In the course 
of half an hour, the bailiff announced that 
the jury were ready to render a verdict. 
^^Let them come in,” said the judge. 
The jury marched back again, and going 
into their places, stood up. As the fore- 
man arose, he said, “ Your honor, we find 
the prisoner not guilty.” 

Then the judge responded, “ The pris- 
oner at the bar is at liberty to go where 
he will, his innocence having been fully 
established.” 

Even the judge looked pleased, and 
friends who had coolly or critically looked 
on, now fiocked around, extending con- 
gratulations to the prisoner and his attor- 
ney. None were more cordial than those 
which came from the members of the bar, 
who recognized a rising light in the cold, 
critical atmosphere of their profession, in 
young Peyton. 

But the congratulation Will wanted, no 


WILLIS AND HIS TRIUMPH. 


133 


man was capable of giving him. One 
word from the lips of the woman he loved 
was worth all this praise ; one kiss of hers 
on such a day would lift him as near 
heaven as mortal man ever gets this side 
of the grave. Home he speedily went, to 
lay his laurel crown at her feet. Military 
heroes, poets, statesmen, — all find their 
sweetest praise from the lips that they 
love ; and promotion for gallantry or 
service means promotion for the beloved 
also. 


CHAPTER X. 


A CLAIM ON ITS TKAYELS. 

ILLIS’S first great case having been 



V V disposed of, and his prospects great- 
ly improved by its happy issue, his profes- 
sional character becoming established by 
it as a rising criminal lawyer, a re-action 
set in. His sensitive, impressionable tem- 
perament suffered a kind of collapse, and 
his mercury fell to the freezing point, while 
life seemed, for the time, scarcely worth 
living. 

The world is full of such people, — men 
and women who, under pressure of suffi- 
cient motive power, are capable of doing 
great things ; but who, after they are done, 
sink into the depths of despondency, think- 
ing they never again will be able to make 
so great an exertion, or so good an impres- 
134 


A CLAIM ON ITS TKAVELS. 


135 


sion. Hope seems to be left out of their 
composition; and in Will’s case, with his 
brightly tinted hair, his fair skin and 
sanguine make-up, the melancholy habit 
was quite inconsistent; but he probably 
inherited physical traits from one parent, 
combined with mental ones from another. 
He looked like his father; but except when 
under excitement, those who had known 
both said, How like his mother he is ! ” 
She had a touch of melancholy in her 
nature, almost akin to madness,” destin- 
ing her to an early grave; for when she 
once came into actual contact with life, 
there being no Hope with beckoning hand 
to lure her away from present trials to 
brighter days to come, she sank under 
them. 

Then, too, Willis began to be worried 
about his father’s claim. Once it seemed 
to never get beyond the United States 
Treasury officials. Coming out of there, 
passed upon adversely, it had been referred 
to a Congressional committee, as special 


136 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

legislation would have to be had to adjudi- 
cate it, the heirs not all being loyal. 

From December to March, Will was so 
often at the Capitol looking after it, that 
more than one Congressman fought shy of 
him, thinking him that man of odium, but 
power, the professional lobbyist. In the 
minds of some, the word lobbyist ” should 
be defined, ^^a wily villain, who seeks to 
infiuence legislation through corruption.” 

What measure, pray tell me, of any im- 
portance, ever passed either House without 
interested parties being on hand to repre- 
sent their interest, to see that suitable legis- 
lation was devised and put into sundry 

bills ” ? 

The river and harbor men send represen- 
tatives to lobby, legitimately, in the interest 
of commercial waterways ; while railway 
men, wjool growers, iron men, men of all 
trades and occupations, are constantly look- 
ing after Congressmen, to see that their 
interests are protected” and furthered, 
whether it be tariff, or only a poor little 


A CLAIM ON ITS TKAYELS. 137 

claim, not worth more than a hundred 
thousand of Uncle Sam’s greenbacks. True, 
there have been Credit Mobiliers,” but 
that was years ago ; the world has ad- 
vanced since then, and our representatives 
are incorruptible ; and corporations, and in- 
dividuals, have nothing to waste upon them, 
since they are amenable to pure reason and 
simple justice. 

At any rate. Will never tried to bribe 
anybody ; but he did talk up the merits of 
his claim, and finally got a bill for its pay- 
ment through the House and referred to 
the Senate, when Congress adjourned, just 
a day before it would have come up for 
discussion ; and that meant failure for this 
time, it being the end of that session and 
of the Congress. It would have to come 
up again as a new bill. Heaven only 
knows how long that will take. 

It almost made him sick. He went home 
looking discouraged ; he seemed to have 
aged ten years in a few days, so pale and 
drawn was his countenance. Kate was 


138 ^ WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

shocked to see him in that condition, and 
really anxious lest a severe illness was com- 
ing on, although she was getting somewhat 
accustomed to his variable moods ; but their 
power to wound was none the less, for he 
seemed to shun and repel her expressed sym- 
pathy, which hurt her more than words. 
If he had given up his confidence into her 
keeping, and talked of it freely, she felt it 
would have been a relief to him, and en- 
abled her to minister to his mental wants. 

He would shut himself up in his room, 
denying her companionship, neither eating 
nor drinking until the mood passed. 

This morbid tendency terrified Kate ; yet 
she hesitated about making her anxieties 
known to even her parents, who were now 
both feeble, and but illy prepared to advise 
or sympathize with her. She felt lonely, 
and at times as though it was almost more 
than she could bear ; for all the anxieties of 
the family life seemed to fall upon her, 
Willis taking no interest in affairs at home, 
even forgetting, or neglecting, to keep her 


A CLAIM ON ITS TEAYELS. 139 


supplied regularly with the necessary funds 
for housekeeping, at times. 

The trials of a refined woman under such 
circumstances are easier imagined than de- 
scribed. They may promote womanliness 
and self-reliance^ but, if so, at the expense 
of something sweet and dear to a woman’s 
heart — her confidence in the husband of 
her choice ; especially when she comes to 
realize that she can no longer lean upon 
him as a staff and support, but must take 
up and carry on her slender shoulders the 
life burdens of two, as best she may. Per- 
haps also she is at a loss to know how 
much to censure or blame him, and doubts 
if any censure or blame is deserved by one 
who acts so out of the normal as to make 
it questionable to a just and sympathetic 
person whether he ought to be held ac- 
countable. 

Oh,” thought she, if he would only 
quit worrying about that ignis fatuus, his 
claim, and devote himself to business, how 
happy we might be ! ” 


140 WILLIS PEYTOI^’s INHERITANCE. 

Will did not consider himself a selfish 
person, by any means. He was generous 
to his friends to a fault, but he allowed 
himself to carry home his bad feelings, and 
give way to them unrestrainedly there, 
_ without considering their effect upon Kate. 
If she had feelings to be considered in the 
matter, he made no sign, so long as she did 
not complain. She bore a burden under 
her heart that some time would become a 
living joy ; and a burden on her heart that 
would ere long become a tender memory, 
for her mother was failing fast. 

One morning in February, one of those 
bright, spring-like days, warm and sun- 
shiny, Kate went into her mother’s room, 
to find that one of God’s dear angels had 
been there before her, and that her mother’s 
sweet spirit had left its worn casket of 
clay for the heavenly vision. 

With a cry she threw herself at the cold 
feet ; the dear old lady had fallen asleep 
in Jesus ” as she sat in her easy-chair. 
When her father and Willis came, they 


A CLAIM ON ITS TRAVELS. 


141 


found Kate in a dead faint at the feet of 
her beloved dead. They bore her to her 
room, where she remained for a month, 
coming forth at last crowned with woman’s 
highest office, motherhood, a lovely babe in 
her arms. 

During these dark days, Willis seemed to 
rouse himself. He was all devotion and 
attention to his wife, and exceedingly proud 
and happy to be the father of a son and 
heir. Her poor old father could not do 
enough to testify how dear she was to him, 
especially now that his dear wife had gone 
home. 

Kate began to pluck up a little courage, 
sad and lonely as she was, now that Willis 
was once again affectionate and kind, and 
would let her indulge her womanly weak- 
ness — if you will — of leaning on him, be- 
ing petted and beloved as a good wife, so 
sweet and constant, should be. Indeed, Will 
did begin to see that he had been intensely 
selfish in indulging his moods through so 
great a time of sorrow and trial as Kate 


142 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

had borne alone. But he didn’t say so to 
her, and therein lay his mistake. The 
power of appreciative love in a woman’s 
life, a few trifling words to speak, but so 
fraught with power to heal and bless a 
woman’s heart, — oh, why are they with- 
held ? Are women never quite understood 
by men of a certain type ? God knows ! and 
he knows also just how much censure or 
blame is due for not making life richer and 
happier, when it could be done so easily. 

Come, Kate, fix yourself and that ^ tiny 
image of myself’ up for a drive. We must 
go and see auntie R,nd the girls. We have 
been letting these young women have it 
pretty much their own way of late. It’s 
time we called them to an account.” 

How good such a sally sounded in Kate’s 
ears ! 

I will be ready by the time you are 
back with a phaeton.” 

^^All right, madam, see that you are. 
Put in plenty of wraps, for it is still March, 
if it is a fine day ; and a wind from the 


A CLAIM ON ITS TRAVELS. 


143 


north pole may strike us before we get 
back.” 

Coming back soon with the phaeton, 
Willis helped his wife in, then took that 
precious package, all muffled up in white, 
a dainty little thing, as soft as a ball of 
cotton, as delicate as fine china, and de- 
posited it in Kate’s arms; for she meant 
to carry her baby on its first outing. 

Through streets, under swelling buds and 
floating down from cottonwood trees, they 
swiftly drove, until they reached the house 
of auntie and the girls. Luckily, they 
were all at home, and loud and hearty 
were the greetings to the little despot in 
blankets, who lorded it over them, one and 
all, like a king. 

Willis, we began to think,” said Jessie,, 
that you were never coming to see us 
again. It is quite time this little manikin 
returned some of our calls.” 

What have you girls been doing all 
these months, any way ? ” said Kate to 
Georgia. ^^We have had so many things 


144 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

happening that we have hardly had time to 
think of you.'’ 

Just then Jessie left the room on some 
errand. Kate resumed, It seems to me 
that Jess looks thin and pale. What’s the 
matter with her, Georgia ? ” 

There’s a good deal, but I dare not be- 
gin to tell you now. I shall have to run 
over and spend the day with you soon, for 
I want you and Will to know. Jessie and 
Claude have quarrelled about something. 
I think Will had best interfere — he is her 
natural protector — and if Claude is to 
blame, hold him accountable. You know 
Jess is just as set in her ways as she can 
be. — She’s coming ! — I will drop in to-mor- 
row, and tell you all about it. Not a word 
to her of how she looks, unless you want 
to lose your head. She is cross enough to 
bite.” 

It is hard, Georgia, when people have 
to bear any kind of a pull on their feelings 
in silence. You may be thankful you are 
not in love.” 


A CLAIM ON ITS TRAVELS. 145 

What, so soon ! You talking cyni- 
cism ? 

Not exactly ; only love does not always 
lead one over a bed of crushed rose-leaves. 
Life is complex, and that every rose has a 
thorn is as true in reality as in poetry.” 

^^Aunt, when are we to have a day’s 
visit from you? ” 

Can’t say, my dear. These girls have a 
dressmaker coming soon, with house-clean- 
ing following that. I will drop in on you 
for ^ lunch ’ some day, and you must be 
content with small favors.” 

0 Kate,” exclaimed Georgia, I have 
just finished a picture which I wish you 
would look at with your critical eye.” 

1 am willing to look at it ; but as for 
the qualifications you are pleased to attri- 
bute to my eyes,* that is another thing. 
Where’s your picture ? ” 

Up in my studio. You didn’t know I 
had set up for a real artist, did you ? I have 
a studio in the mansard, with a north win- 
dow. I tell you it is grand. Come on ! 


146 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

I will lead the way. You can trust that 
precious child for a few moments to 
auntie’s tender mercies. You come, too, 
Will.” 

How does a bright young girl get up a 
studio ? Is it like a man’s ? Not a bit of 
it ! A woman’s refinement of taste in the 
whole of her surroundings has the mark of 
femininity written over it, in its superior 
cleanliness and order, — two things of 
divine origin that do not belong to the 
average male, with a sense of color superior 
to any save that of the most excellent 
artistic genius. 

Now that is not claiming too much for 
the artistic temperament feminine; it is 
only portraying what belongs of inherit- 
ance to the average woman, — superiority 
in cleanliness, order, and a sense of color. 
In Georgia it amounted to genius : for her 
orderliness was not stiff, her cleanliness not 
fussy, nor her sense of color purely conven- 
tional. She possessed the power to so 
use these practical qualities, — for she was 


A CLAIM ON ITS TRAVELS. 147 

ideally practical in all things, — as to get 
the most out of them. She made a study 
of the real things in life, and with a deft 
hand brought out, or wrought in, the ideal, 
which is the governing element in all lives 
above the sordid. 

The mansard on the little house they 
lived in was considerable of a sham. It 
made an imposing front, in a small way; 
but it was chopped off in the rear, with a 
backward sloping roof out of which sprung 
a dormer window facing north, with its 
two sunny windows on the south front, — 
a tiny room some fourteen feet square, the 
hall being cut off on one side, but it 
answered Georgia’s purpose. 

Go in. A Persian rug is on the floor, 
an art square ; with some soft window 
draperies, with a Greek pattern scattered 
over them. A few quaintly carved, high- 
backed wooden chairs, picked up at auc- 
tion ; a most luxurious lounge, with square 
pillows piled high at the back, with otto- 
mans and tUe-d-tUes ; spindle-legged tables 


148 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

stand about, without any attempt to be 
anywhere but just in the place they ought 
to be for convenience and looks; a blue 
jug, antique vases, a few pictures on the 
walls, and the easel, give it a very cosey 
and habitable air ; while a great white cat, 
with a very pink nose, lies curled up in the 
only luxuriously furnished chair, a sleepy 
hollow,” big enough to be what its name in- 
dicates, — a good place for ^^a beauty sleep.” 

A soft cloud of something covered a 
picture on one of the easels. Georgia 
advanced, and lifted it. There was a 
square, flat work-basket filled with soft, 
half-knit wools, and a few balls of yarn 
lying loose, with that very identical cat 
reaching up to the little stand on which 
the basket stood, helping herself to a ball 
of yarn. She had such a cunning, cattish 
expression, that both Will and Kate ex- 
claimed laughingly, — 

^^ Well, Georgia, you have caught her 
catship’s expression perfectly. She is a 
beauty, too, for she is not unlike her great 


A CLAIM ON ITS TRAVELS. 149 

prototype, the panther. Her lines are 
mostly curves, which are lines of beauty 
the world over.” 

Georgia, I would enter that picture, 
when you’ve finished it, at the New York 
Exhibition, or the Philadelphia Academy, 
if they would take it.” 

Will, I hear a voice downstairs that is 
‘ cooing ’ in rather a high key,” said Kate. 

I must away. But Georgia, I think your 
studio a gem. You will distinguish the 
family yet.” 

Don’t know about that, Kate, but I can 
make a few dollars, and please myself in 
doing it. I do believe that I love my art 
so much that I couldn’t give it up even to 
get married. If my lover cannot marry 
my art, he cannot have me.” 

That’s good doctrine, dear; no genu- 
ine, self-respecting man expects a woman 
to give up anything that is really a part 
of herself, these days ; and, as your art is 
part of your life, not even for his lordship 
himself.” 


150 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


don’t believe if I were to marry, I 
would do as most lady pianists do, — quit 
practising.” 

^^No, I do not believe you would. No 
one ever does who really loves art. I 
remember once of being in Philadelphia 
on a visit, where a married lady who 
entertained me was an amateur artist. 
She had a studio in her house, and painted 
pictures beautiful enough to have made her 
rich and prosperous, had it been her for- 
tune to need to live by her art ; and, with 
these she embellished her home, and made 
it lovely.” 

Good-by. I will drop in to-morrow,” 
said Georgia. 


CHAPTER XI. 


CLAUDE AND JESSIE. 

LAUDE was in sucli a state of mind 



over his mother’s hostility and condi- 
tion, his father’s sympathy and advice, that 
although he went out to walk, he had no 
idea of seeking Jessie until he had calmly 
deliberated upon what course to pursue. 

Not caring much where he went, by the 
force of habit, he moved out toward Franklin 
Square, where on arriving he sat him down 
on his accustomed seat by the fountain, 
thinking thoughts very different from those 
that had hitherto hallowed that spot with 
tender associations. 

He scarcely knew how long he had been 
there, when a well-known voice said, — 
You here ? I did not expect to see you 
to-day.” 


151 


152 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Claude turned his face toward Jessie with 
a flash of pleasure in his handsome eyes? 
but she, with a woman’s intuitive percep- 
tion, saw that something was weighing 
upon his mind. 

Thrown off his guard by her unexpect- 
ed appearance, he said, Yes, dear, I am 
here ; but I own my visit was the result 
of accident rather than design. I had been 
thinking deeply, and, as the boy said of 
his whistling, ^it did itself.’ I came as 
a matter of course.” 

What is the matter, Claude ? ” said 
Jessie, seating herself beside him. 

My mother was taken very ill to-day, 
and I’ve just run away to think.” 

Had you, Claude, anything to do with 
her illness ? You say you ran away ^ to 
think.’ I have a feeling that something 
unpleasant has occurred between you and 
your mother about us. Is that so, Claude ? 
Do not try to deceive me. Let me know 
the worst she has to say ; ” for, as Jessie 
went on, she read in Claude’s darkening 


CLAUDE AND JESSIE. 


153 


face, that she was undoubtedly the subject 
of his thoughts : while with him, here was 
another revelation of womanhood. This 
woman, through her instinct of love and 
devotion, was reading him like a clairvoy- 
ant ; he not knowing that love is not only 
seer, but prophet in one. 

For a few moments he sat silent, his 
father’s advice running through his mind. 
He could not deny, nor would he confess, 
so he tried evasion, that most dangerous 
condition between lovers. 

My dear, I am not at liberty at present 
to say what caused my mother’s illness, but 
of this one thing you can rest assured ; so 
strongly are my affections fixed upon you, 
that no opposition, if there ever should be 
any from my family, could alienate me 
from you. I am yours faithfully, Jessie, 
as I believe you are mine.” 

Jessie looked disturbed. She knew he 
was not exactly speaking the truth. He 
was evading it, temporizing ; not trusting 
her fully with the details, whatever they 


154 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

might be, and she didn’t like it, — these 
half confidences, though accompanied by 
protestations of undying loyalty. 

Claude, I did not think you would try 
to deceive me. I just know that some- 
thing unpleasant about our relations has 
occurred in your family. I feel it ; and 
you know, if they are too lofty for me, 
I am still as proud as they, and release 
you, especially since I see how unhappy it 
makes you.” 

0 Jess, how little you understand me 
or the situation! You must trust me. 
Believe me, I would explain if I could. 
I can’t just yet ; and, as for being flung 
over in that way, simply because you are 
vexed with me, I guess not 1 I will not he 
released.” 

1 never promised you, Claude, in words, 
that I would be yours until — I said, you 
remember — your family were willing to 
receive me as one of themselves, every way 
their equal ! ” 

do remember, Jessie; and you are 


CLAUDE AND JESSIE. 


165 


their equal, both for yourself first, and as 
coming from good old Virginia stock, — 
just as good as mother’s Pilgrim ancestry, 
only they do not know you, darling, as I 
do; they have prejudices, if you so consider 
them. I want to take you to the Capitol 
soon, and introduce you to my governor. 
He is first-rate, and I am just sure he will 
like you, and be willing to receive you on 
your merits.” 

Why, Claude, you do not suppose I am 
going to condescend to go to the Capitol to 
be introduced to even your father, do you ? 
My aunt is a charming hostess, and if the 
honorable senator, who happens to be your 
father, wishes to make my acquaintance, he 
must call on us, as is usual in such cases.” 

Jess, you are prouder and more spirited 
than any one would take you to be from 
your mild, gray-blue eyes, your cool-tinted 
skin, and quiet manner,” said he. 

Claude, I am none too proud or spir- 
ited, either. Your people shall respect me, 
or I will have none of them.” 


156 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


All right, dearest and best of girls. 
Now let us walk a few blocks, for I must 
soon return to the house and look after 
poor mamma. You are not so very angry 
with me, are you, dear ? ” 

I don’t know whether I am or not ; 
nor shall I, until I think it over by myself. 
Your very presence confuses my judgment, 
and I have a feeling that you have ^ carried 
the day,’ whether I would or not.” 

I only hope I have,” remarked Claude. 

A few blocks farther on they separated ; 
and for several days Jessie neither saw nor 
heard anything from Claude, which at first 
seemed strange, then queer, then inexplica- 
ble. Then she cried, and finally came to 
the conclusion that Claude had taken her, 
on reflection, at her word, — considered 
himself discarded ; for there was no reason, 
that she could see, why he should not write, 
if his mother was too ill for him to be out. 
Still, as there was nothing in the papers 
about Mrs. Senator Warner’s illness, it was 
all very strange, very trying^ and Jess, 


CLAUDE AND JESSIE. 


157 


being no angel, only a very sweet and lov- 
ing, sensitive girl, grew paler than usual, 
and, as Georgia said, cross enough to 
bite.” 

To go back a little. Mrs. Warner s ill- 
ness disappeared almost as suddenly as it 
came. She recovered her usual self-con- 
tained and placid demeanor, outwardly 
proud and calm, but with a manner that 
generally commanded attention, in her 
household or elsewhere. 

She had a maid to whom she was much 
attached, and who returned the feeling with 
that personal, flattering devotion that char- 
acterizes the Irish heart. She was a blue- 
eyed girl, with raven hair, from ^^ould 
Ireland,” who had been selected by Mrs. 
Warner, first, because she was so attractive, 
and then kept because she was docile and 
capable, devoted to her mistress’s interests, 
knowing her place, yet sufficiently well- 
bred to spend many hours in her society 
when that lady was not otherwise en- 
gaged. 


158 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

She crocheted beautifully, darned laces, 
and deftly mended elegant trifles, too 
costly to be thrown away, making herself 
pleasantly useful; while her native wit, 
dropping from a tongue brogue-tipped, 
made her always interesting to have about. 
She came to share many of her mistress’s 
thoughts, and to some degree her sentiments, 
being no gossip, since she had been an 
inmate of the senatorial household some 
ten years ; always going wherever they 
went in the way of trips, or to Washington 
for the winters. 

Nothing had as yet been said to Bridget 
in regard to her mistress’s illness, but this 
silence was about to be broken. 

Mrs. Warner was sitting up, looking very 
interesting as an invalid, in a soft cashmere 
neglige, and a delicate cap on her head, a 
few days later than the scenes recorded of 
her illness. 

Bridget, I wish when the postman 
comes, if Claude or Mr. Warner are not in, 
that you would bring all the mail to me.” 


CLAUDE AND JESSIE. 


159 


Indade, dear lady, tlie mail mon has 
just gone ; fo’ only a momint agoo, I herrd 
the bill ring.” 

^^Well, then, go down and bring the 
mail up here.” 

Presently Bridget returned with several 
letters for the senator, two or three for 
Mrs. Warner, and one for Claude, — a 
dropped letter in the delicate chirography 
of a woman’s hand. 

Other mothers, besides those of Celtic 
origin, never quite get over the idea that 
even grown-up sons have not ceased to be 
children, and are subject to that espionage 
of a mild, motherly sort, that spies only for 
the good of the subject. 

Mrs. Warner was, as said before, an 
imperious dame, fond of having her own 
way ; and she coolly opened a secretary 
drawer, — or rather told Bridget to, — de- 
posited Jessie’s missive — a mixture of ten- 
derness and reproaches — in that receptacle ; 
her sense of delicacy and honor not allow- 
ing her to act the part of spy farther than 


160 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


to detain, but not violate the confidences 
under seal. 

Bridget, if Claude should ask you if 
any letters came to-day for him, just refer 
him to me by saying you gave me the 
mail.” 

Yes, mum.” 

Claude never asked, and that little hiUet 
doux lay undisturbed in its hiding-place for 
three or more months. 

In the mean time destiny had played 
tricks with Claude’s note to Jessie.. The 
postage-stamp did not stick,” and, after 
the usual routine, came back to him through 
the dead-letter office in the course of six 
weeks. He and Jessie were just as un- 
happy, as widely estranged, and misunder- 
stood each other as much, as though it had 
all occurred purposely, instead of being the 
result of circumstances. 

Consequently, Claude and Jessie passed 
on the street with the coldest and most 
formal of bows ; and then Claude took an 
early opportunity to go out with a scientific 


CLAUDE AND JESSIE. 


161 


expedition from the Smithsonian, to the 
National Park on the Yellowstone, which 
kept him away all summer; while Jessie 
spent her vacation mostly, as Georgia said, 

dumping round,” and could not be per- 
suaded to go anywhere farther away than 
on an excursion to Glymont or Mount. 
Vernon. She loved the water, and a day’s 
sail down and up the beautiful and lordly 
Potomac acted as a balm on her wounded 
spirit. 

Those proud, self-sustained people suffer 
a great deal more than the . impassioned 
ones who talk and cry it out, getting sym- 
pathy, pity, and petting from almost every 
one ; and Jessie was one of the unfortu- 
nate few who suffer from a hurt like this 
misunderstanding, as others do from a 
physical blow. 

She never would have believed it possi- 
ble for Claude to act so strangely, so cru- 
elly, unless she had been made to experience 
it. And, as for Claude’s suspecting that 
his mother would carry her opposition to 


162 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

his freedom of choice to the extent of 
detaining his letters, nothing short of actual 
knowledge could make him even think of 
such a thing as among the possibilities. 

Ah, these cunning little threads of life, 
woven from contact with complex and con- 
flicting natures ! They weave many a pat- 
tern never contemplated by those who de- 
sign, and the weavers who draught them. 

Under all outward currents run deep 
channels, cutting, — cutting their way to 
oceans of experiences, where the sailors 
are shipwrecked, cast away, drowned, with 
only here and there one saved as by a 
miracle. 


CHAPTER XII. 


CLAUDE AN EXPLORER. 

I N company with a score of companions, 
each of whom was a specialist in his 
way, to all appearances Claude did not find 
himself so very unhappy or sore-hearted 
as he was on leaving Washington. Unless 
a man loses his head entirely and becomes 
insane, love seldom works any other mis- 
chief than to mellow some and make 
cynics of others. 

Claude was too healthy and sanguine to 
be either ; therefore he entered into the life 
of an explorer with the enthusiasm of an 
amateur bent upon having a good time and 
learning something. He had no doubt but 
that he would find his heart all right upon 
his return. 

He never could forget such a girl as 
163 


164 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Jessie, but she seemed to have slipped out 
of his life without any appreciable reason ; 
too proud, he thought, to accept destiny 
even linked with his, which did not come 
up to the standard of her deserts. 

Claude entered into all the schemes of 
the professor ; acted as his amanuensis, and 
climbed up canons, clambered over rocks, 
chipped specimens, and took observations 
of the grandeur of our Western scenery, 
which must be seen to be fully appreciated. 
He enjoyed roughing it, sleeping under a 
tent of pine boughs or the stars, as fate 
decreed ; he enjoyed the brilliancy of the 
rocks which rivalled the flowers of the 
field in variety of delicate or gorgeous 
shades of coloring.” 

He became an ornithologist ; a hunter of 
the cinnamon bear or the buffalo, as on their 
expedition they encountered these rovers 
of plain or mountain. Soon Claude’s ap- 
petite was something prodigious. He could 
eat anything ; and his form became strong, 
his fair skin a tawny brown. He enjoyed 


CLAUDE AN EXPLOREK. 


165 


every moment of the day, but when the tents 
were pitched for the night, the camp-fires 
glowing after the rude evening meal, he 
and the professor seemed to be more 
inclined to be chummy ” than their com- 
panions, who soon disposed of themselves, 
each man in his own way for the night ; 
while Claude and the middle-aged profes- 
sor would sit and chat about the world 
in general, and especially that part of it 
left at home. 

Now the professor was one of Nature's 
own sons. He was simple and natural as 
a little child, as men of great minds are 
apt to be ; and while he acknowledged 
Nature as his mother, whose secrets of 
creation and life he longed to solve, at 
home he had a wife whom he loved with 
the singleness of heart which sometimes 
characterizes such as he. She had accom- 
panied him on many of his former expedi- 
tions, but on this one she could not, as she 
was now a mother, and her baby girl 
absorbed the wife in her matronly duties. 


166 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

But the professor missed her intelligent 
companionship, her wifely care; the joys 
of a domestic atmosphere after a day’s 
hard climb among the mountains. Into 
Claude’s not unwilling ear the good man 
poured out all his sentimental woes, for the 
young man’s touched affections disposed 
him to be interested in this display of 
conjugal affection. His home experiences 
held nothing like it between his parents, 
each of whom moved in a different orbit. 
Here was a union existing, so far as the 
professor was concerned, between two be- 
ings, one of whom was rugged and bearded 
like the pard,” but with a heart ideally 
loyal and tender to one who he averred 
was the loveliest and gentlest of her sex ; 
while the photograph he always wore over 
his heart sustained the assertion. 

Now all this was good for Claude. 
Somehow, in this isolated life, he had 
drifted into an intimacy with the professor 
which resulted in many confidential asides ; 
and the professor had been told enough to 


CLAUDE AN EXPLORER. 


167 


enable him to guess the rest of the love 
affair between Claude and Jessie. Besides, 
he knew Jessie. His idolized little girl had 
been in Miss Peyton’s kindergarten; and 
he told Claude he considered her one of 
the finest specimens of young woman- 
hood he had ever seen,” in response to 
which sentiment that young man heartily 
agreed. 

They were lying close together one night 
on pine boughs, with the rough hunter’s 
blankets thrown over them ; their feet rest- 
ing in front of the dying embers of the 
camp-fire, with the deep blue sky over 
them, the yellow stars looking like lamps 
above them, when the professor said, — 

Claude, I am pretty sure that you will 
be able to solve the reason why about Jessie 
some day. Somebody has, it is my impres- 
sion, put an obstacle between you which she 
sees, but you do not.” 

It is her pride simply, I think,” said 
Claude. She imagines — not wide of the 
mark either — that my mother opposes my 


168 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

wishes, and she says she will have none of 
me until they at home are willing to receive 
her as one of themselves.” 

^^Well, I must say I like her for that,” 
responded the professor. Most girls 
would be so glad to get you, you handsome 
dog, that they would not care a button for 
the old folks’ opinion. Jessie evidently 
has self-respect, and is not that kind of a 
girl ; but if you have been fortunate enough 
to win her proud and cold affections, you 
need not worry. She will be yours some 
day, if you are faithful.” 

I never expect to love another woman 
as I have and could love Jessie, if she 
would let me ; but I confess the future 
doesn’t look very promising so far as she 
is concerned. I joined this expedition, 
hoping, determining to forget her ; and here 
are you, a sentimental old scientist, doing 
all in your power to make me remember 
her.” 

good woman like her can’t be for- 
gotten, you will find ; and I am mistaken 


CLAUDE AN EXPLORER. 


169 


in you, if you really want to forget her. 
You ran away because you couldn’t bear to 
meet her, and see her cold, sad face, as I 
have, and wondered what it meant. If you 
do not find a way to win her, I shall cut 
you just as soon as we return to the land 
of civilization.” 

All right, old chap ! I suppose our 
friendship is doomed then ; for fate sepa- 
rated us, and if she is not kind enough to 
reunite us, we shall always suffer for her 
meddling.” 

The professor, somehow, lost his grip on 
the confidential thread of discourse, for a 
most sonorous snore emanated from his 
side of the couch, hearing which Claude 
turned on his side ; and soon the air was 
vocal with the sniffs, snorts, and rattles 
which scientists, as well as other masculine 
sleepers, utter in the silent watches of the 
night. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE OLD PKOFESSOR TURNS MATCH-MAKER. 
HEY did not keep Sunday very relig- 



JL iously in camp. Dryasdust,” of the 
government expedition out in the Bad Lands 
of the far West, and Professor Quartz let 
the men do pretty much as they pleased on 
that day ; he and his working-staff writing 
up the journal of the week’s work, letters 
home, or reading up in the library they 
had with them, the Bible, Shakespeare, 
and Nicholas Nickleby ; the first seldom 
used unless some one died, and had to be 
buried, while Nickleby was so much read 
but little was left of it, and Shakespeare 
was looking shabby from much use and 
the wear and tear of hard travel. 

On this particular Sunday, the professor 
sent his most loquacious companion off on 


170 


PROFESSOR TURNS MATCH-MAKER. 171 

a hunt^ to get rid of him ; for that nook 
in his mind not devoted to science had a 
scheme in it to execute which he must get 
Claude out of the way. 

The professor didn’t look like it any more 
than thousands of other people in this 
world who have a rough exterior and a 
refined interior, but he was capable of a 
great deal of sentimental feeling, both 
directly and sympathetically. He had had 
a love experience in his youth that had ter- 
minated happily, thanks to the skilful inter- 
ference of a friend ;^and Claude’s somewhat 
sad eyes, and a certain look at times, actu- 
ally transformed the geologist for the nonce 
into a sentimentalist. 

The camp was situated in a rocky and 
half-barren region, where canons divided 
up the otherwise flat earth into abysses 
where the depths were so great they made 
one dizzy to look down. They were partly 
sheltered by a beetling brow of stone, jut- 
ting out from half way up in the canon’s 
mouth. Just above them was a belt of ever- 


172 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


greens, and the lair of occasional beasts 
not desirable to meet unprepared. 

The professor had pretended great inter- 
est in securing a cinnamon-bear skin, and 
Claude, with a party of men, had gone on 
a hunt, while the man of science proceeded 
to get out his writing materials ; and at a 
stone desk of nature’s manufacture, he 
indited the following epistle : — 

My dear Wife Maude, — As usual, I am about 
to give up an hour or two to chronicling the expe- 
riences of the past week. But here let me say for 
your future edification, madam, this is my last trip 
without you. Even one woman’s presence can 
enliven and relieve the monotony of a poor devil’s 
existence in this wilderness of rocks and hills that 
were cut out by the torrents which sawed down 
through them, forming canons and divides thou- 
sands of feet deep. 

We have done nothing but climb and carry bur- 
dens the past week, for the river was too turbulent 
and swift for our boats, and we have hardly made 
a hundred miles of progress, but we have picked 
up a lot of scientific facts and observations for 
future reference. We are well, and as we are 
almost out of this canon, we hope to have easier 


PROFESSOR TURNS MATCH-MAKER. 173 

travelling the coming week ; but it is very lonely, 
— not a letter, or paper, or bit of news now this 
six weeks. We are utterly ignorant of all that is 
going on in the world, or how it is with you and 
our darling child. I tell you, Maud, I sometimes 
think you must either be different from other 
women, or the best woman in the world, not to cry 
out against these long separations, — my devotion 
to science ; but I am not so heartless a fellow as 
you might imagine. I long to see you every day, 
and I am resolved this shall be my last expedition 
without you. You have proved so many times that 
you could endure hardship for my sake, that I think 
you could again, even with our child. 

There is one thing you can do for me where you 
are. You know Mrs. Senator Warner ? Well, her 
son is with us ; not exactly one of us, but a manly 
young fellow, and a mighty good scientist for an 
amateur. But I am persuaded that we are in- 
debted for the pleasure of his society to the fact, 
that in his case, the course of true love does not 
run smooth ; ” and the young lady, I think, is 
that pretty girl, sister to Willis Peyton, — Jessie, I 
believe, is her name. I have not been able to find 
out just what is the matter, — we fellows are 
clumsy at such finesse ; but perhaps you, with your 
wit and tact, can, and may be able to bring about 
a better state of affairs : for, if I remember right, 
our little girl belongs to Miss Peyton’s kindergar- 


174 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 


ten, and this is your chance to distinguish yourself 
as a match-maker, for I would stake my reputation 
that Claude’s life is clean and manly, and he would 
make such a husband as that young girl might be 
proud of. My impression of her was, that she 
carried herself with a great deal of self-respecting 
dignity, which is a kind of pride. There is too 
little of genuine love in this world to waste the 
little there is now and then “ on the desert air ; ” 
and I am tempted to turn match-maker myself, if 
you do not find a way to clear up this misery, and 
bring these two young noodles into pleasanter 
relations. 

Heaven’s choicest blessings, with my undying 
love, be with my darlings. 

Yours devotedly, 

George Quartz. 

P. S. This will be mailed some time this week, 
as I send a man and scouts back to a Mormon 
settlement for supplies, when I hope to have news 
from home, with papers containing that of the 
world in general. G. Q. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

t 

AN EXCURSION, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 

I T was a hot summer, but Congress 
dragged its weary way along through 
June and July, much to the disgust of the 
Mrs. Honorables or the Mrs. Senators who 
felt in duty bound to tarry in Washington 
or its vicinity for the adjournment, so as 
to have a wifely care over their hard- 
worked husbands who sweltered and strug- 
gled in political throes in the illy ventilated 
halls of the Capitol. 

Mrs. Senator Warner considered it espe- 
cially hard on her. She was suffering from 
a nervousness that would neither let her 
go nor stay in peace. She took little air- 
ings in her carriage out to the charming 
drives through the grounds adjacent to the 
Soldiers’ Home, and occasionally an excur- 
175 


176 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

sion on a steamer down the river for a day 
•or a week, as it terminated at Glymont or 
Fortress Monroe. 

It was the last of July, and already by 
breakfast time a hot day had set in. She 
ate sparingly, but bade Bridget prepare a 
lunch-basket, and we will go to Glymont 
for the day,” said she. ^^It will surely be 
cool coming and going ; and, being moon- 
light, if we reach home by nine o’clock, it 
will be all right.” 

Bridget knew her mistress’s tastes as to 
luncheons, and she soon had one prepared, 
and then ran to assist her in preparing 
for the day’s outing. The family carriage 
took them, with shawls, waterproofs, and 
umbrellas to protect from a thunder-storm 
which is very apt to close up such an elec- 
trical atmosphere as accompanies the white 
heats of July weather in Washington, to 
the wharf at the foot of Seventh Street, 
where the Wauwasett lay, already puff- 
ing, ready to start with a full load of 
humanity arrayed in summer’s gauziest 


WHAT CAME OF AN EXCURSION. 177 

material, so far as the younger portion 
was concerned. As many as could find 
accommodations went on the hurricane 
deck, under the awning, for fresher breezes 
and finer views. A space was cleared 
for the young people to dance, and a 
string band began to play as the boat, 
with pennon and streamer flying at 
masthead, steamed slowly out and into 
the stream. 

Mrs. Warner and her maid found a seat 
near the pilot-house, and she observed, as 
she sat down, a middle-aged lady in a soft 
gray dress, with two very pretty young 
women with her. One was dark and 
slight, very proud in her carriage. She 
wore a white wool dress, while her com- 
panion, scarcely less beautiful, but of a 
different type, less haughty in her mien, 
wore a' dark, plain blue gingham trimmed 
with white embroidery. Both girls had 
broad-brimmed hats on, and the three 
seemed sufficient for themselves. Their 
manners were gentle, high-bred, and so 


178 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

pleasing, that Mrs. Warner found herself 
wondering who they could be. Tourists 
probably, as she had never seen them in 
society, — or possibly, of those exclusive 
Washington families, who have all the re- 
finement and breeding which society is sup- 
posed to give, without ever being a part of 
it, having seen better days, before the 
war.” This last was not so wide of the 
mark, had she but known who they were, 
for they were no less than Georgia and 
Jessie with their aunt ; Georgia, that morn- 
ing, being another unwitting instrument in 
the hands of fate, when she merely said at 
breakfast, Come, Jessie, don’t mope. 
Let’s go to Glymont for the day.” 

Jessie, equally unconscious of what was 
before her, said, neither anxious nor willing, 
— only too indolent to get up opposition as 
she often did, — Well, I will, if aunt will 
go too.” 

Certainly, girls, you both need a change. 
I shall enjoy it myself, for we shall swelter 
if we stay here.” 


WHAT CAME OF AN EXCURSION. 179 

And that is how they happened to be 
aboard the Wauwasett. 

A lovely pale blue haze draped the Vir- 
ginia hills and Maryland shores with a veil 
of beauty ; and the light waters rippled and 
danced like jewels in a gold and silver trail 
after the boat, which was swept by the 
gentlest of southern breezes as she glided 
past the Arsenal, and the resorts on either 
shore, with Fort Washington and Mount 
Vernon sitting so placidly on the heights 
to the right, until they landed at Glymont, 
where the happy picnickers found a sylvan 
retreat, or a pavilion for their spread. 

Somehow Mrs. Warner and the girls’ 
aunt found themselves in proximity more 
than once ; and while the girls went roving 
for flowers, the two ladies, sitting on a green 
bank overlooking the bathers and the danc- 
ing pavilion, drifted into chat, which, while 
cordial, disclosed nothing of each other’s 
identity. They met conversationally on 
conventional ground and exchanged many 
ideas ; were mutually favorably impressed ; 


180 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

and when the girls returned, the aunt 
merely said to her companion, My 
nieces,” which was introduction enough 
for a picnic. 

^^Mrs. Warner,” said Bridget on coming 
up, would you like to take a sail in the 
yacht ? ” ^ 

Aunt Martha and the girls exchanged 
one of those rapid, telegraphic glances, 
which said, That is who she is.” Jessie 
haughtily walked away. Mrs. Warner’s 
eyes followed her, and she thought, 
have seldom seen so beautiful a girl any- 
where, or a manner so much to be ad- 
mired.” 

As the sun went down, the moon rose at 
its full, and a most delightful summer 
evening came on, so refreshing after the 
long, hot day. Jessie could not ignore a 
presence so ladylike as Mrs. Warner’s, and 
the evening meal was placed upon a single 
table in a little summer-house, but she was 
very careful not to address any of her re- 
marks to any one in particular, but let the 


WHAT CAME OF AN EXCURSION. 181 

delicate shafts of her maidenly wit play 
promiscuously, since the presence of Claude’s 
mother acted like champagne upon her sen- 
sitive nature ; and a delicate bloom tinged 
her cheek, while an unusual sparkle was in 
her dark-blue eyes. 

About half-past seven they picked up 
their lunch baskets and other traps,” 
which had not been needed after all, hence 
were a burden bordering on the order 
nuisance,” and boarded the Wauioasett 
as she set out for her second trip to Wash- 
ington. 

As the moonlight deepened, the sunset 
flush having disappeared, a merrier party 
never rode a wave than was on its home- 
ward way at the close of that day. 

Twilight, silvery gray, is as beautiful on 
old stone Fort Washington and Mount 
Yernon Heights as on the water ; and on 
they seemed to glide, everybody happy and 
free from care, when Fire! fire! fire!” 
broke on the startled ear like a word of 
doom, and in an instant the flames shot up 


182 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

a wall of lurid line around the pilot-house, 
literally cutting the front and aft asunder. 

The ladies were in a group at the ex- 
treme end of the boat, with the guard only 
between them and the water. The pilot 
headed the boat for the shore, but — Great 
Heavens ! What a scene ! Men, women, 
and children of families divided by a wall 
of flame ; cries of alarm, prayers, impreca- 
tions, and the captain directing at one end 
of the boat only ; the life-preservers all 
stored in the space round the pilot-house 
where the flames burst out from the engine- 
room, and the life-boat unmanageable, they 
were soon enveloped in flames. 

What a moment of horror ! Who can 
depict it ? Georgia and Jessie could swim, 
thanks to a natatorium training, but Aunt 
Frank and Mrs. Warner and her maid 
could not. 

Jessie’s presence of mind and calmness 
never forsook her for a moment. She and 
Georgia fell into Aunt Frank’s arms for 
what she felt might be a last embrace. 


WHAT CAME OF AN EXCUKSION. 183 


Take a stool with you and jump over 
the guard/’ said Jessie embracing her. 
^^We will try to save you. The boat is 
swinging round. It will soon be in shallow 
water. Keep your mouth closed tight while 
in the water.” 

So saying, she turned to Claude’s mother: 

You are his mother. I will save you, 
if possible, for his sake. Jump quick.” 
So saying, she fairly forced the two elder 
women over the rail and into the water, 
for the flames scorched and licked toward 
them like a hungry fiend. 

They went over with a splash, and she 
and Georgia followed. Aunt Frank had a 
cool head in emergencies also. She clung 
to her stool and soon came up with her 
arms across it, her head above water, but 
floating landward. 

Not so Mrs. Warner. Unaccustomed to 
face stern experiences, she went down, ex- 
pecting it to be her last of earth, with a 
cry to make one’s blood curdle ; but other 
cries as distressful were heard all around, 


184 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

while men, women, and children struggled 
bravely or selfishly, as their natures were, 
for life and the shore. 

Jessie’s feet soon touched bottom, al- 
though the water was up to her chin ; but 
she had confidence, and, as she saw Georgia 
grasp Aunt Frank’s stool, she looked around 
for Mrs. Warner, who soon emerged, for 
she had literally gone to the bottom as she, 
screaming, plunged in. Jessie grasped her 
by the arm and encouraged her by word to 
keep her head up and float, which with a 
little help she soon did, and in five minutes 
came ashore more dead than alive. Bridget 
was saved by her instinct, rather than any 
aid she had from others, for, on finding 
herself in water that buoyed her up, she 
stopped struggling, and the in-coming tide 
bore her ashore. 

Mrs. Warner was very much prostrated; 
so much so, that for a while it seemed as 
though she might die from nervous exhaus- 
tion after all danger was past; but wet 
and uncomfortable as they were, the three 


WHAT CAME OF AN EXCUKSION. 185 


ladies chafed her hands and strove in every 
way to restore animation and reviving life. 

In just twenty minutes from the alarm 
of fire, the Wauwasett burned to the 
water’s edge, and her hull went ashore, and 
down in a few feet of water with a hissing 
thud, her freight scattered on the Virginia 
beaches, a few miles below Alexandria, 
while many were still struggling in the 
water, and the dead or dying drifting in 
to add to the horrors of the situation. 
Presently a large Norfolk steamer came 
around a bend of the river. Yawls were 
sent out, and the survivors rescued and on 
their way to the city, carrying a tale of 
horror and disaster as fearful as ever oc- 
curred on Potomac’s placid waters. 

Only an hour behind time, but what an 
eventful hour ! Who carries ill news that 
it flies so fast? There seemed no way 
visible; but a mass of surging, excited 
people blocked the wharf, and demanded 
to know if their beloved were dead or sur- 
viving. 


186 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Senator Warner was there also; and he 
and his man carried Mrs. Warner, still but 
half conscious, to the carriage and home, 
where in her bed she soon recovered her 
reason, but the very fires of hell seemed 
consuming her soul. She could hardly wait 
for daylight that she might send for the 
brave girl who saved her life for Claude’s 
sake, to confess to her what a bad mother 
she had been. 

The old senator listened to her self-accu- 
sations with mingled emotions. He was 
glad she was saved ; glad that brave, sweet 
girl was the rescuer; glad for Claude’s 
sake ; but even he would not have suspected 
his somewhat imperious wife of having 
detained a letter of Claude’s. Why, Claude 
was twenty-four years old now, and the old 
lady would have a sweet time settling with 
that young man ! 

However, he was perfectly willing to go 
after Jessie just as soon after daylight as 
possible. 


CHAPTER XV. 


CLAUDE IN PERIL. 

T he dew was hardly off the sage brush 
when Claude and his companions left 
camp on their bear hunt. 

They were armed with rifles and knives, 
for sometimes bruin comes perilously close, 
and if the hunter is unprepared, he might 
be squeezed to death, or felled with a softly 
padded foot, one blow from which means 
death. 

Having seen a cinnamon bear prowling 
among the rocks more than once, they, as a 
party of peaceable geologists and engineers, 
had no special desire to cultivate his ac- 
quaintance further, until the Professor 
suddenly seemed to have .a great longing 
to possess the skin of a cinnamon bear, and 
then several of the party became quite en- 
187 


188 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

thusiastic over the idea. When they set 
forth, the strongest-limbed and best shots 
among the explorers expressed a determina- 
tion to be the hunters, promising to return 
by night with bags full of bear steaks and 
the coveted fur-covered hide, for the be- 
loved Professor. 

Claude thought he had endured as much 
in every way of hardship and peril as the 
best and hardiest of them all. Indeed, he 
had, and proved himself over and over 
every inch a man in physique, as in breadth 
of mind. There was an almost romantic 
attachment between the Professor and his 
fellow scientists, which extended to the 
bearers of burdens, cooks, drivers, and 
Indian guides employed to pilot them 
through these unknown wonders of cre- 
ation so far as white men of the present 
times are concerned, although clifE houses, 
mounds, and interesting remains” still 
speak of a generation unknown to historic 
times. 

They crept cautiously up the steep sides 


CLAUDE IK PERIL. 


189 


of the canon, along ledges and shelving 
rocks, peering into every opening or- cave 
to see if their prey was not concealed there. 

. They pressed on, up perilous heights, 
where one look below made them dizzy, 
on, until they came to a wider open space, 
where a belt of scraggy evergreens grew 
gnarled and distorted, apparently clutching 
and clinging to the rocky surfaces by long 
and straggling roots. They had no power 
there to grow up tall, but attained only the 
heights of brush,” thick set, the home of 
the animals that infested that region. 

They had not gone far in this track, 
before they found spaces partly broken 
down as though some animal had blit 
recently passed through it. They carried 
their arms cautiously, each leaving one 
hand free so as to grapple with the bushes 
or the foe as might be. 

Presently they heard a growl, and a crash. 
They could not see from whence, but they 
knew that they were either close to bruin’s 
lair or overtaking him out for a walk. 


190 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Look out ! ” cried Claude, who was 
ahead, for he sighted two fiery eyes, and 
a big, open red mouth just ahead of him, 
as the bear came leaping on. 

It was all so quick that there was no room 
to turn either back or aside. Claude and 
Max, the most powerful men of the squad, 
being in front, were at close quarters with 
the foe. The men behind went crashing 
each way to a place of safety, but these 
two had nothing to do but to fire and whip 
out their knives ready for action. 

Bruin bellowed with rage and pain, and 
with one or two leaps was upon the men ; a 
creature looking as though he would weigh 
si thousand pounds — one of the largest and 
fiercest of the species. 

Max made a thrust with his knife as he 
came on, but in so doing, bruin swerved to 
one side and made a lunge for Claude, 
whom he hit on the shoulder, tearing his 
clothes to shreds, and sending him over 
backward into the brush which gave way 
under him, and he seemed destined to go 


CLAUDE IN PERIL. 


191 


over the abyss into the canon’s depths 
below. Luckily for him, he fell only a few 
feet, when he brought up against a ledge 
that overhung the awful gulf. 

The other fellows rallied quickly to Max’s 
assistance, and with ball and knife, they 
soon despatched their foe, when they went 
to the rescue of Claude, whose prostrated 
form filled them with terror. 

They found him only stunned, and his 
lacerated shoulder was not so badly 
wounded but that a few days would heal 
the torn flesh. The explorer who adds to 
his scientific lore the accomplishment of 
being able to repair torn clothes, would 
soon patch them up quite well enough for 
those who did not hesitate to sacrifice a 
garment any day for the good of the expe- 
dition, such as making ropes of drawers,” 
when a comrade was in peril, hanging by 
one hand to a cliff, many feet above the 
surging waters, as Max did once for the 
professor. 

They picked Claude up, skinned the 


192 WILLIS Peyton's inheritance. 

bear, cut up all the meat they could carry, 
and made ready to return to camp. Claude 
was quite chagrined to think that the bear 
came so near killing him, instead of his 
being able to carry off the honors of the 
hunt as he had hoped to ; but since it was 
Max whose prowess did it, he swallowed 
his mortification and congratulated him 
heartily. 

Just about dark they reached camp, 
where Billy, the cook, had a caldron of 
steaming coffee bubbling fragrantly over 
the camp fire, which somehow looked more 
cheerful than ever before to Claude. 

The professor, seeing them afar off, went 
forth to meet them, and, on seeing Claude’s 
piteous plight, he almost repented having 
so nearly put an end to the young fellow’s 
life whose fate he had mixed himself up 
with, as though to tempt Providence. 

However, all were glad that Claude 
escaped with his life; and the momentous 
letter was in the mail-sack ready for to- 
morrow’s journey eastward. 


CLAUDE IN PERIL. 


193 


The professor eased his conscience by 
being as devoted and attentive to Claude’s 
every need as though he were the head of 
the expedition, and the professor its lowest 
servant, especially delegated to wait upon 
that auburn-haired young man. 

The bear steak was good after the long 
diet of salted meat ; and the cinnamon skin, 
drying and curing itself in the peculiar 
air of the mountains, looked very nice, 
in an atmosphere where meat hung up out 
of doors keeps sweet and good for months 
without curing with salt gr smoke. 

The next day the messenger and scouts 
were sent back to the Mormon settlement 
for supplies, and the explorers took up the 
regulation duties of climbing, boating, or 
getting through a canon as they could, 
with no unusual incidents occurring. 

Claude was disabled, but his flesh soon 
healed in that favorable atmosphere, and 
he was quite convalescent at the end of 
the week. While inactive, he had mastered 
a good bit of ornithological lore, before 


194 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

unattainable for want of leisure to pursue 
it; so does compensation follow even our 
afflictions in this world. Disaster affords 
us the coveted leisure to do a certain 
thing before unattainable. 

Some ten days after, the messenger re- 
turned from the settlement with supplies, 
welcome letters, and the papers. Claude 
received a half dozen despatches, saying, 
‘‘ Eeturn immediately, important. You will 
find letters at Salt Lake explaining.” 

Well, this was a dilemma, and they three 
or four days’ journey from a settlement, 
with nothing but a trail to follow. 

Claude could not imagine what had 
happened, for if it had been death, why 
not say so ? He sat on a rock and thought 
until unavailing thoughf made him dizzy. 
He mechanically opened the package of 
papers from Washington, some of them 
nearly two weeks old. He thought he 
had best begin as near where he left off as 
possible, so he ran through July, with its 
everlasting congressional reports that to 


CLAUDE IN PERIL. 


195 


him amounted to nothing ; into August, re- 
ported awful hot,” accounts of excursions, 
and on until he came to the Burning of 
the ‘ Wauwasett' Thrilling Descriptions of 
the Scene as told hy the Passengers, Senator 
Warner s Wife saved from Drowning hy a 
Beautiful Young Girl. Jessie Peyton the 
Heroine of the Hour!' 

Claude plunged in and read the whole 
story, his blood beating faster and faster 
with excitement, dismay, pleasure, delight, 
and finally rapture. Jumping up, he ran 
to the professor and cried, Hold on, old 
boy, let me embrace you ! Such a batch of 
news ! ” And, boy-like, he poured forth 
the whole batch, beginning with the tele- 
grams and ending with the rescue. Old 
chap. I’m off to-morrow morn, early ! 
Do you hear that ? With a guide, if I 
can have one ; if not, without. Nothing in 
this rocky country could hold me now ! ” 
Well,” replied the astonished professor, 
^^it is all coming right without my med- 
dling.” 


196 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

What do you mean ? ” said Claude. 

They sat down together, and the pro- 
fessor confessed how he had designedly 
sent him off on a bear-hunt that he might 
play Divine Providence for him. 

Don’t you know, professor, that little 
as I have seen of life, I have seen this — 
that plan and plot as we may in regard to 
any human life, our own not excepted, 
there is a power underlying, beyond our 
control, that shapes it in another mould 
than the one we designed.” 

^^Yes, I’ve noticed that, too; but it is 
not a scientific view, however. We edu- 
cate our young people to believe that they 
can be whatever they aim to be. The 
truth is, that there are not places enough 
to go round, if one aims for places. The 
only aim to plan for is a high manhood, 
to put life to such uses as occasions call for. 
I congratulate you, and you shall start for 
home and happiness with Blue Feather for 
a guide. He will carry you through safely, 
and I can send another message to my 


CLAUDE IN PERIL. 


197 


sweetheart by your pony express.’’ So 
saying, they turned in for the night. 

Claude was not usually an early riser, but 
he found no difficulty at all in getting up 
at five sharp on the morning of September 
twenty-first, and lost no time in getting 
ready to start with Blue Feather for his 
homeward journey. 

The professor could hardly keep from 
shedding tears when he parted with Claude, 
for he had learned to love him like a 
younger brother. Camaraderie in the wilds 
of the West is a very different thing from 
the social feeling that grows up under the 
rules and regulations of conventionality. 


CHAPTEK XVI. 

Claude’s mother and jessie. 

B eing young, Jessie had somewhat sud- 
denly revived after the fatigue and ex- 
citement of the preceding day. She, with 
Georgia and Aunt Frank, were seated at the 
breakfast-table with moderately good appe- 
tites, when Senator Warner was announced, 
and asked for Miss Jessie.” 

Jessie, like other young people, had some 
illusions, in regard to people older than her- 
self outliving their emotions, that were 
destined to receive a shock. 

When she passed into the little sitting- 
room where Senator Warner awaited her, 
she met for the first time in her life a gray- 
haired man evidently under the sway of 
some powerful emotion. With a woman’s 
swift intuition she felt it, and she saw 

198 


Claude’s mother and jessie. 199 

its reflection in the honest, speaking face. 
He came forward, and, impetuously tak- 
ing her into his arms, said, My dear 
young girl, you are not unknown to me. 
My son Claude has told me all about you, 
and your relations to him ; and while you 
have sent that graceless youth, to whom I 
have the honor to be father, roaming at 
large over the wild West, you have won my 
everlasting gratitude by saving my wife’s 
life yesterday, when she fled from a fiery 
death to what would have been, but for 
you, a watery grave.” 

He could not speak further for a moment, 
but mastering his rising emotion, pro- 
ceeded : My child, Claude’s mother has 
sent for you. She is too ill to come to you, 
but she has something to say. Will you 
not ■ swallow your pride and go with me 
now? The carriage is at the door.” So 
saying, he kissed her on the forehead with 
reverent tenderness, and released her. 

Jessie was not resentful, and under her 
manner of snow, fires of feeling surged 


200 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

with lava heats. She involuntarily felt 
that she loved and honored Claude’s father 
for his manliness and tenderness. Coming 
back to the dining-room she soon told 
them the purport of the old gentleman’s 
visit. 

Yes, go, Jessie,” said Aunt Frank. 

There is no doubt about your equality now. 
The obligation is on their side, and you 
have won their gratitude, respect, and un- 
dying affection.” 

During the short ride, Jessie’s emotions 
were of too mixed a nature to allow her to 
speak save in monosyllables, but the old 
senator proceeded to tell all he knew of 
Claude’s latest movements, as though they 
were the one thing that might be most in- 
teresting to his companion. Pretty good 
guessing it was, too, for Jessie’s proud 
heart was just as hungry for news of the 
one she loved best, in spite of his wayward- 
ness, as it could well be. 

On arriving at the house. Senator Warner 
took his companion into his wife’s wait- 


Claude’s mother and jessie. 201 

ing-room, while he went up to prepare 
her. 

^^Well, my dear, I have succeeded in 
bringing your rescuer to the house. Shall 
I bring her in ? ” 

Yes, and leave us alone — I must see 
her alone ! ” 

Going out he brought Jessie in, leading 
her by the hand, saying, Wife, this young 
lady is our son Claude’s dearest friend. I 
hope you will deal gently with her.” 

Jessie blushed, and going across the 
room, sank on her knees beside the bed 
where Claude’s mother lay, shorn of her 
strength and self-abased. 

My dear girl, look up ! It is not you 
who should hide your face, but I, his 
mother, who treated you both so shame- 
fully.” Putting her hand under her pillow 
she drew forth Jessie’s unopened letter, 
three months old. 

See what a mother is capable of, and 
despise me if you will, but forgive me if 
you can ! I am sorry enough, now that I 


202 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

have seen you, and know how noble you 
are. Of course I have caused you and 
Claude a deal of anguish, which cannot be 
atoned for ; but I can ask your forgiveness, 
and hope we shall be friends in the future.” 

0, don’t blame yourself. You did not 
know me, and I ought to have done for 
any one what I did for you. Still, I am 
glad it loas you ! ” 

So saying, one of Jessie’s dazzling smiles 
broke over her face, and she sank down 
upon the older woman’s breast with a little 
sob, and was clasped close and warm to a 
mother’s heart. 

I hope you will forgive Claude, my 
dear, for his mother’s sins. He, no doubt, 
never dreamed I could be so cruel or mean 
as to withhold a letter, and he will be peni- 
tentially sorry for his unkindness to you. 
Say you forgive us both, my daughter.” 

There is nothing to forgive,” said 
Jessie, magnanimously. We were all 
victims of circumstances.” 

Except myself. I was victim to an 


Claude’s mothee and jessie. 203 

imperious will^ backed up by my hete noir 
— a bad temper.” 

Just then Bridget was heard coming, 
and Jessie sprang up and sat down in a low 
chair beside the bed, feeling very near to 
tears, but very happy and much at home, 
considering how recently she had come into 
that house. 

Somehow Claude’s mother looked less 
haughty and imperious lying weak and 
helpless on her bed. The outlines of her 
face were softened ; and her pretty, plump 
hands with flashing jewels on her taper 
fingers, lying outside the bed-clothes, added 
another womanly grace to her appearance ; 
and, ridiculous as it seems, under such 
touching circumstances, Jessie wondered if 
she had as small and pretty feet as she had 
hands. 

Bridget brought in breakfast for two, a 
daintily served meal, which Jessie helped 
to eat with returning appetite, for the sena- 
tor’s early visit had cut her first breakfast 
short. 


204 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Impulsive people are often transformed, 
instantaneously, from good haters to lovers, 
and vice versa, Mrs. Senator Warner took 
such a fancy to Jessie, that she importuned 
her to prolong her visit ; made her promise 
to come every day until she was well ; and 
in various ways displayed her delight and 
fondness for Claude’s friend, in a way that 
would have delighted that young man. 

In the mean time, the senator was tele- 
graphing hither and yon, trying to trace 
and reach Claude ; but for some reason 
unexplainable, was unable to communicate 
with him or the expedition, or even locate 
it. 

The senator was not a man to go half- 
hearted into anything. He literally took 
^ possession of Aunt Frank and Georgia also. 
When Mrs. Warner was able to ride out, 
he carried her first to that household to 
pay her respects ; for he had no doubt that 
Claude would speedily take advantage of 
all this good feeling to storm the heart of 
Jessie, and take all its fortifications, when 


Claude’s mother and jessie. 205 

he once did get an inkling of how matters 
stood at home ; nor would he stand on the 
manner of his coming, once a telegram 
reached him. Claude would hurry home 
as fast as steam could bring him, or he was 
no chip of the old block.” And then he 
rested his case, treating the two ladies 
with that consideration which was befitting 
the relatives of Claude’s fiancee. 


CHAPTER XVIL 

A LITTLE RESPITE. 

A unt frank had lived long enough 
to be considerable of a diplomate. 
With her experienced eye she soon began 
to realize that Jessie was suffering from 
being in somewhat of a false position. 

Senator Warner’s family treated her al- 
most like a daughter, and tacitly accepted 
her as Claude’s affianced ; and yet Jessie 
was not personally reconciled to that young 
man, nor had she heard from him or he 
from .her. It is always more or less em- 
barrassing to the newly engaged to recog- 
nize their position openly ; and here was a 
complicated case, that outsiders were not 
supposed to know anything about, and yet 
had to be recognized somehow. 

Aunt Frank lay awake one night think- 
206 


A LITTLE RESPITE. 


207 


ing it out. She would take the initiative, 
and carry the gijls away to some quiet 
place out of town, for a few weeks change, 
until the time Claude might have returned 
or been heard from, and in this way Jessie 
would have opportunity to recover her self- 
esteem, which just now seemed to be in a 
collapsed condition. 

Girls,’' said that schemer, a few days' 
later, do you know what we are going to 
do next ? ” 

^^No, aunt,” spoke up Jessie. I wish 
you would tell us. I would welcome any 
change for awhile.” 

^^So would I,” said Georgia. ^^Even a 
lover ! ” with a malicious twinkle in her 
eye, making a mouth at Jessie. 

Oh, ' you hush, and let aunt talk. I 
know she has something on her mind. She 
looks dreadfully conscious.” 

have, my dears, — I might as well 
confess it. We are all poked to death 
here, and have seen quite enough of Wash- 
ington for one summer. We thought we 


208 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

could stand it through, but it seems to me 
it is unusually hot this season, and I tell 
you what we will do. This evening we will 
take the Norfolk boat and go down to 
Fortress Monroe for a week. If we like it, 
we will remain as much longer as we 
desire. If we don’t, we can come back at 
the end of that time. I think we would 
enjoy that quiet town for a few days, with 
the bathing, crabbing, and other sea-side 
pleasures.” 

So we should, aunt, but it is not so 
very quiet. The Washington Continentals 
are camped somewhere in that vicinity, 
beside the officers stationed there.” 

^^All the better, then. There will be 
dancing at the hotel in the evening, and 
we shall have picturesque partners, — for 
young men in blue trousers and cream 
white coats are very agreeable to look at, 
especially as we know something about 
so many of them. It is just the place 
you girls have been sighing for, I am 
sure.” 


A LITTLE RESPITE. 


209 


“ Yes, but, aunt, I promised the Warners 
I would ride with them this evening.” 

You can go there this morning and ex- 
cuse yourself by saying, I, unknown to you, 
had made arrangements to spend a week at 
Fortress Monroe. I am quite jealous of the 
senator’s attentions to you. I do not think 
it looks well in so elderly a gentleman, and 
for Mrs. Warner’s sake, I am going to carry 
you away,” said Aunt Frank teasingly. 

I am willing to be carried,” said Jessie, 
as she skipped away to pack up her things, 
humming a snatch of an opera gayly for the 
first time in weeks. 

I should think she would be,” said 
Georgia. ^^If Claude Warner does not 
appear this way soon, I shall advertise for 
him as a lost lover, who has a red head 
and a very sweet sweetheart, a-pining for 
love o’ him.” 

Go along, you saucy girl ! Don’t you 
tease Jessie. She has enough to bear, and 
she is keyed up to a high pitch emotionally, 
and it is to keep her from breaking down 


210 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

that we are going away. You must help 
me divert her mind, and amuse her until 
he does come.” 

Dear me, aunt, it does seem as if 
being in love was but the beginning of 
one’s troubles. I am glad I never was 
bewitched with the fictitious charms of 
any man, and sincerely hope I may escape 
all the perils incident to our outing, if I 
am to be exposed to the fascinations of our 
^ Continentals.’ ” 

You need not be afraid ; but I dare 
say your time will come. When it does, 
Jessie’s mild wooing will be child’s play to 
your stormy scenes and misunderstandings, 
and perplexities, or I do not know you.” 

Of course you do not. Home folks 
never do fully appreciate their jewels. It 
is too much like being a prophet in one’s 
own country.” 

Go away, chatterbox, and help Jessie ; 
and, if you can, keep from talking nonsense 
all the time, — but I confess I like it. 
It is like the gentle summer breeze that 


A LITTLE RESPITE. 


211 


keeps us from stifling, — light, airy, and 
playful.” 

Aunt Frank went her ways, and that 
night found them sailing by fairy moon- 
light down the Potomac. They reached 
the Fort a little after midnight, and the 
rows of flaring oil lamps, lining the long 
pier at which they landed, made quite a 
pretty scene. The band was playing the 
last strains of a Strauss waltz, as they went 
up the steps of the long veranda of the 
hotel that looked out over the beach. 

Their rooms were large enough to be 
comfortable, and the light wood furnish- 
ings, with mattings and muslin curtains, 
made them look very inviting to these pil- 
grims, who soon retired, tired enough to 
drop into an early slumber that lasted 
unbroken until the morning sun peeped 
saucily into the open window, as it seemed 
to rise just over the broad river — at this 
point some twelve miles wide. 

Dressed in clean, starched percales, they 
went to breakfast, and ate crabs and flsh 


212 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

with a relish unknown away from the smell 
of salt water. After that, they took a walk 
on the beach, where the cactus made the 
landscape assume a Southern aspect, as it 
struggled for supremacy over the sands of 
the Chesapeake. They counted the passing 
sails of the schooners that seemed to float 
in the offing like white swans, or they 
gathered shells, encrinites or petrifactions 
of sea worms, thus lazily living until the 
hour of bathing arrived. 

Arrayed in bathing suits devoid of grace 
or beauty, even the girls had to shout at 
each other derisively, while once in a while 
a figure would appear on the beach, scud- 
ding from the bath-house to the water, 
comical enough to decorate an old-time 
almanac. Once in the water there was 
not much to choose. Pretty heads and 
ugly heads, old heads with young heads, 
bobbed about like corks, so far as appear- 
ances went ; but Jessie and Georgia were 
very care-free and happy, while Aunt Frank 
enjoyed it all in her ladylike, quiet way, 


A LITTLE RESPITE. 


213 


that was a model of middle-aged perfection 
of manner, or so thought her two young 
ladies. “ If all the motherless girls had 
such an aunt, mothers would not be missed 
so much,” they said to each other. 

She seldom bathed, but she loved to sit 
under the shade of her umbrella and watch 
the water-witches and mermaids frolic. 
She had not been out there long before a 
little old lady, with yellow hair just turn- 
ing gray, and, very black eyes, and a still 
beautiful complexion, would come and sit 
beside her. 

This little old woman had seen a great 
deal of life. She was a great observer, 
a good talker, and all she needed to make 
her pour forth her reminiscences at great 
length was a good listener. This she found 
in Aunty Frank, whose quiet ladyhood 
pleased her, and she gave her a great deal 
of her time ; and one day, she, thus sitting 
on the sands, kept talking after the bathers 
had come out of the water, talking until 
the gong sounded for dinner j and still she 


214 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

had more to tell, but the substance of it 
was about like this : — 

^^Yes, madam, I have a history as full 
of incident and romance as any novel, but 
I am not going to give all the particulars 
now. I am the daughter of a famous gen- 
eral, the wife of another famous general, 
and have had to prove that I was legiti- 
mately born, and legally married ; that I 
am who I am; that I was heir to the 
property I claim. Why, I have been push- 
ing my claims for over thirty years ! I 
have had hope after hope deferred, but I 
know they are just, and that I ought to 
be worth millions, instead of sitting here 
living on borrowed money to be paid when 
my claims pass ! I have had to sell my 
diamonds ; I have spent all my money on 
lawyers ; I have lost everything but my 
courage. I shall never lose that while I have 
life, for I knoio that my claim is just ; that 
if I do not get it, my heirs will ! Why, 
half the best part of New Orleans belongs 
to me ! If I should ^ compromise ’ my 


A LITTLE RESPITE. 


215 


case with the present occupants of the 
property, I should still have enough left to 
make me thrice a millionnaire. — Give it 
up ? — Never ! It is my life — this claim ! 
It excites me like champagne. Ridiculous 
as it sounds, I really do not know what I 
should do for excitement and occupation if 
I should get it. — Thirty odd years is a 
good while to peg away on one idea, but 
it is no worse than it would be if I had a 
case in English Chancery. Do you know. 
I’ve seen scores of men get discouraged and 
die, or give up pushing a claim — just 
claims, too ; and some even becoming in- 
sane with anxiety. — They can t stand what 
a woman can ; what I have. Why, already 
the second or even the third generation are 
prosecuting the French Spoliation Claims. 
I wish for my children’s sake that mine 
was concluded. I mean my husband’s 
children. I’ve nobody else to leave it to. 
— Do you know, last winter, I couldn’t 
afford to have a room with fire in it, where 
I board. I wore my bonnet all the time to 


216 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

keep my head warm. — I presume I will 
get a settlement just as I am about to die, 
and cannot enjoy it.” 

They got up to go in. Aunty Frank 
had not interrupted the story of a claim, 
save to say yes, or nod attentively ; all the 
while she thought of how Willis Peyton’s 
bright, talented young life was being 
wrecked by that infatuation, a Government 
claim ; thought of how this beautiful and 
brilliant woman had spent a lifetime in 
pursuit of a legitimate claim, that, if it was 
ever carried, would only be when she was 
ready to totter into her grave ; and Aunty 
Frank was very sad at heart. 


CHAPTER XYIII. 


A SURPKISE, 



.NE week on the beach was so pleasant 


that Aunt Frank informed the pro- 
prietor of the hotel that they would take 
their room for the month. 

They then gave themselves up to the 
quiet amusements, the easy ways into which 
even smart people instinctively glide at 
these watering places. Every morning 
they went to the beach, or strolled into the 
tangle of growth that encroached upon it, 
where woodbine, orchids, gentians, asters, 
and golden-rod grew up rank and tall ; 
while creeping cactus sprawled at their 
roots, and struggled to kill out the grass : 
the very border-land of North and South, 
on old Virginia’s shore, where more than 
one kind of battle has been fought beside 
that of vegetable life. 


217 


218 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

Being quite hot, as early September days 
are apt to be, on this particular morning, 
the ladies, our three and several others, 
sought these sylvan shades; and being in 
sight of the water, they selected a clear, 
greeny spot, and sat down, resolved to 
make a picnic day of it. Some of the 
young girls volunteered to go back to the 
hotel and have a basket of lunch sent down 
just before the arrival, at noon, of the 
excursion boat from Washington. Jessie 
was one among the number. 

Georgia declared she would ^^eat raw 
clams,” and catch them herself,” before 
she would go for lunch through the hot 
sun ; and one young man who happened to 
be straying that way, one of the boarders, 
said that he had a yacht in the bay round 
the point, and he would like to pick up a 
crew of lady sailors to go out on the 
water to enjoy tlie breeze. All the while 
he looked so pointedly at Georgia that she 
said, Young man, what do you pay a day 
for lady sailors, with their aunts in tow ? ” 


A SURPKISE. 


219 


He laughingly replied, The highest 
price for the young sailors, but the captain 
of my craft always considers himself highly 
honored if the chaperon will tread the 
decks for nothing but the fun of it.” 

What a sophistical reply ! You do not 
suppose I would leave this picnic for ^ fun,’ 
do you ? ” said Aunt Frank. I will trust 
you, Harry Spalding, if you do not sail 
out of sight, with Georgia and Mrs. Gaines. 
She loves sailing. I don’t.” 

Done ! ” said Harry, and he went away 
after his boat, which soon came flying with 
wings spread, like a great water-fowl, from 
around a sheltering curve in the bay, where 
she had been lying to. 

Harry Spalding was a Government 
clerk, taking his month’s leave; and he 
was a good-looking, bright young fellow, 
whom all the girls liked, he was so oblig- 
ing and ready for anything, from sailing 
to dancing. With a lot of other young men, 
clerks also, he kept house, bachelor fashion, 
in a tent, a half mile farther up the river. 


220 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 

As he came in sight two or three of his 
companions could be seen aboard, and 
Georgia was soon re-enforced by Mrs. 
Gaines, the famous little claimant, and 
two or three girls who volunteered to go. 
So it was a merry party that sailed away 
on the little boat, cruising about ; the crew 
fishing and lunching in the bright sunshine, 
kept cool by the softly blowing southern 
breeze. They stayed out until about four 
in the afternoon. 

In the mean time, the improvised picnic 
was moving on. A waiter brought down 
a well-filled hamper, and all the girls 
strolled back by one o’clock, the most of 
them preferring to stay on the hotel piazza, 
or on the beach, waiting for the excursion 
boat from Washington to come in, the one 
great excitement of certain days ; for then 
the regulars,” as the boarders were styled, 
often met acquaintances and friends from 
the city, heard the news from home, and 
received much additional stimulus to the 
monotony of their lives. 


A SURPRISE. 


221 


Jessie had taken her daily dip with the 
rest, and was walking out on the shore, 
looking and feeling fresh as a daisy just 
plucked from the stem, when the Lady of 
the Lake landed, and poured forth a crowd 
of hundreds who hurried and scurried past 
each other along the narrow foot plank. 

Jessie and a companion were lazily 
watching some little black boys scoop up 
the wiggling crabs, when she looked up to 
meet a presence most unexpected — Claude 
Warner, browner, fuller of form, manlier, 
and handsomer than ever. 

Jessie ! ” Claude ! ’’ Jessie’s compan- 
ion, seeing a stranger greet her with such 
shining eyes, such a warm grasp of both 
hands, skipped away and was never missed. 

It did not take Claude long to tell how 
he hurried home as soon as he received his 
father’s despatch, how he had had an ex- 
citing interview with his mother, and a 
reconciliation with the assurance from both 
parents that nothing would please them 
better than to have Jessie for a daughter. 


222 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

Walking together under one umbrella, 
they strolled into the camp of the picnick- 
ers, where all the women at once declared, 
in an aside, that Jessie ^^had met her fate.” 
Even Aunty Frank did not think it worth 
while to intrude her chaperonage, when 
Jessie and Claude strolled away after lunch, 
and sat down on the sands under one sun- 
shade, which effectually shut out the gaze 
of a curious world. 

In the mean while he made explanations, 
protestations, and vows of eternal love and 
constancy, to his proud little fiancee, who 
made him describe minutely the scene 
between himself and his parents, that she 
might discover a vestige of assumption of 
superiority on their part, for if she had — 
even then she would have held back. 
With her it was equality or nothing. 

Aunt Frank carried her diplomacy so far 
that when Claude approached her in the 
evening, asking if she would object to his 
taking a room for the remainder of the 
month at the Fort, she said, No,” if he 


A SUZiPRISE. 


223 


would ^^get it somewhere else beside this 
hotel/’ for she thought a little respite after 
the long misunderstanding and pain of 
parting would do no harm, and she could 
keep around at a respectable distance. So 
it was all arranged before Georgia came 
back from her sail. 

Nobody can tell just how such things are 
done, — but Georgia came back in a different 
mood from what she went out. She never 
meant to do it ; but somehow she had let 
that saucy young captain make love to her 
in the way that love begins ; in looks and 
tones that nobody sees but those interested. 

Mrs. Gaines boasted that there had been 
no flirting on that yacht from the time 
she started until she came in.” And yet 
more than one couple on her had received 
a wound from Cupid’s bow ! How could it 
be otherwise, with three or four young 
couples, happy, care-free ; wind, water, and 
sky all conspiring to make the world en- 
chanting and beautiful, — a glamour of 
life’s rosy glow over it all ? 


224 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 




Poor little Mrs. Gaines, she was not very 
cute ” outside of points of law affecting 
her claims ! There she was sharp enough, 
as many good lawyers well knew to their 
cost. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


DEEP WATERS. 



'HE world was getting to look all awry 


J. to Willis. Eight long months must 
turn their wheels of thirty or more spokes 
around, before his claim could possibly be 
moved one inch. Even then nothing could 
be done but have a new bill introduced 
some bill day ” in Congress, and referred 
to the Committee on War Claims, there to 
drag its weary length along again. 

These Government claims, of which this 
sample is only a small one, have all the effect 
of gambling upon the feverish and fluctuat- 
ing mind of the claimant. One day all seems 
to be going well, and hope is in the ascend- 
ant ; by next month, or the month after, at 
farthest, the claim will have been allowed, 
paid, and the happy man enabled to pay 


225 


226 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

off all old debts, and do all the wonderful 
things which ready money enables one to 
do in the way of business, travel, or 
pleasure. 

To-morrow dawns, and his dreams have 
come to nothing; there is a hitch” in the 
evidence or the committee, while Despair 
comes in and sits beside the hopeless 
claimant. 

Willis became so affected by his anxieties, 
that he could not apply himself to business, 
which was observed by his senior partner, 
Mr. Bridges, who advised him to take his 
wife and run away to Asbury Park or Long 
Branch — anywhere — where life flowed on 
in lively, healthy currents to take up his 
attention. 

He took the advice, bundled up Kate 
and the baby, and went to Asbury Park. 
The first few days beside the sea acted like 
a charm. He revelled in the blue skies, the 
lovely water, boating, and still life ; but a 
three days’ storm came up. It was cold, 
dismal, chilly without; and although he 


DEEP WATERS. 


227 


stayed with Kate, and romped with his 
growing heir, no influence — not even love’s 
— was powerful enough to ward off the 
mood that was clutching at his mind. 

Kate was a quiet, observant woman ; her 
natural bent had been deepened by painful 
experiences, and she could not but notice, 
with alarm, Willis’s state. 

He was not only moody, but irritable; 
almost savage when she tried to arouse or 
soothe him. His sleep was broken, and he 
gritted his teeth in horrible dreams when 
he did lose himself. He grew thin and 
pale, while people began to observe and 
comment on his altered and unhappy 
appearance. 

On most subjects he was rational enough, 
but Kate realized that on this one, his mind 
was fast becoming a wreck. What should 
she do? She finally persuaded him that 
they would all be better off, more comfort- 
able at home in Washington, however hot 
it might be. Besides, she wanted to be 
near friends and the family physician. 


228 WILLIS Peyton’s inheritance. 

They had only been back a few days, 
when one morning Kate missed Willis. 
He had not been out since his return, but 
sunk into a state of hopeless dejection. 
The family doctor had told her he feared 
softening of the brain,” and that he should, 
in the course of a few days, call in counsel, 
unless some change for the better occurred. 

Aunty Frank and the girls had to be 
told of his condition at last. It struck 
them as peculiarly horrible. It is so diffi- 
cult for the young to realize that it is 
almost as easy for a mind to fall ill as for 
the body ; and they look upon any form of 
insanity as exceptional, while in reality, 
some form of insanity is almost as common 
as sick headache or neuralgia. 

They were still all under one roof when 
one morning Kate suddenly missed Will 
from the room. She had come to have a 
feeling that she must know where he was, 
what doing, every moment of the time, 
without seeming to be watching him. 

She rose without saying anything, and 


DEEP WATERS. 


229 


went up to their private room. She 
tried the door — it was locked. Becoming 
alarmed, she cried out, Will ! Willis ! 
Please let me in! It’s I, — Kate. I want 
something ! ” 

No reply, but she could hear a groan. 
Eeally frantic now, she ran down to the 
sitting-room. 0 aunt, I fear the worst 1 
He will not let me in, and he is groaning. 
Georgia, dear, run for the doctor quick, 
and the rest of you come up with 
me.” 

Now, as Georgia ran out, a policeman, 
skilled in face-lore, saw her speeding away, 
so he made it his business to walk in at the 
open door unannounced, just as the three 
frightened women were going up-stairs 
again. Thank God, he was a man whom 
any woman could rely upon for succor or 
help ! He was a good man, too, if fate 
had destined him to a lowly calling, with a 
small salary attached. A few words made 
him master of the situation, and he was 
just about as sure of what had taken place 


230 WILLIS Peyton’s inheeitance. 

in that room before he opened the door as 
afterward. 

He imperatively motioned Kate and 
Jessie back^ with a gesture that com- 
manded obedience, and to Aunty Frank 
he said, Come on, but for God’s sake do 
not scream when I break open the door, for 
it is doubtless a case of suicide.” 

By this time he had forced the door, and 
not a sound was heard. They advanced. 
Will sat in a large chair, his back to the 
door — quite dead — with a small pistol in 
his right hand, firmly clenched, while his 
head fell over on his left shoulder, 
— a stream of blood trickling from his 
temple. 

Aunty Frank was a woman susceptible 
of great self-restraint. No cry escaped her 
lips ; but it was horrible. The first sight 
of one near and dear who has taken his 
own life ! She merely said, Shut the 
door.” They stanched his wound, laid 
him down on a lounge, and so far as possi- 
ble effaced all traces of personal violence ; 


DEEP WATERS. 


231 


and by this time Georgia and the family 
physician had arrived. 

He, too, having had experience, said to 
Georgia, ^^Stay here until I come out,” 
which he presently did, and with Aunty 
Frank went directly to Kate. Taking her 
by the hand, he said, My dear child, it is 
as I feared. He has become hopelessly 
insane. You must prepare your mind for 
the worst. , Even death would be better than 
that, — long years of vacuity of mind ; an- 
other victim to the pursuit of one idea ; in 
his case, that of a claim.” 

0 doctor, how can I bear it ? — to 
have my husband hopelessly insane ! If 
he had died, I should have grieved ; but 
now no home life, no husband — how can 
I — how can I bear it ? ” 

^^My child, even in affliction, God is 
merciful. He has taken his own life, 
something I believe utterly impossible when 
one is sane.” 

It was a terrible shock. No words, how- 
ever consoling, could for the time comfort 


232 WILLIS Peyton’s inhekitance. 


that afflicted family. It was one of those 
melancholy events which many households 
have to go through with when crime, 
disaster, or misfortune overtakes them ; 
scenes too painful to be depicted on the 
pages of a fiction, however nearly allied to 
facts. Therefore, we draw a curtain around 
this circumstance which had its place here, 
or it would never have been on the stage ; 
for it is not our pleasure to depict life’s 
trials in all their realism, only as they 
illustrate the story we have to tell. 

After weary days the poor wife and 
sisters had to think of the living more 
than of the dead, for life’s demands are 
inexorable. 

Lawyer Bridges took upon himself the 
settlement of Willis’s estate, and the 
further prosecution of the unhappy claim, 
which he now foresaw must come to a 
happy issue sometime soon ; the disloyal 
element having been removed by death, 
the Government would come to terms. 

In the mean time, Kate continued to 


DEEP WATERS. 


233 


keep house for her old father, whose half- 
pay quite sufficed for the little household. 
Willis’s child was such a comfort, and 
for its sake she revived and survived her 
grief. 


CHAPTER XX. 

WEDDING BELLS. 

I N real life events do not come to a stand- 
still with the climaxes that overtake 
one, however much they may in the artistic 
closing up of a fictitious story. 

Into each, life some rain must fall, 

Some days must be dark and dreary.” 

But the sun never ceases to go on shining, 
far above the clouds, for all that. After 
death come births; and happy home life 
still goes on, though chastened and sancti- 
fied through sorrow and bereavement. 

Coming so soon after Willis’s death as it 
did — at Christmastide — the wedding of 
Claude and Jessie was very quiet, though 
none the less elegant or happy. 

Mrs. Warner, having no daughter of her 

234 


WEDDING BELLS. 


236 


own, took Jessie into her innermost heart ; 
while papa Warner adored and petted her 
so, that Claude said it was well his 
venerated father was not another fel- 
low ! ” 

In the mean time, those two interesting 
young ladies, Georgia Peyton and Laura 
Bridges, each had lost a heart, and found 
one in return. 

But Georgia was always a mettlesome 
girl, and vowed she would never marry a 
Government clerk ! ” Therefore, the ownSr 
of that yacht had to take up a profession 
and prepare himself to win her respectful 
consideration. He chose Medicine, which 
necessarily puts off the consummation of 
their hopes for some years. 

Laura Bridges was a beautiful and most 
charming young woman of society, not 
without ambition, as has been shown ; and 
she had many admirers among gentlemen 
of superior abilities and position, one of 
whom carried her off; and she now exer- 
cises her gifts ” as the wife of a foreign 


236 WILLIS Peyton's inheritance. 

consul, which event left her father very 
much at the mercy of his friends. He 
spent much of his leisure with Mrs. Pey- 
ton’s father, Colonel Kerdolph, whose 
feebleness seemed to require unusual atten- 
tions from old acquaintances. 

Finally, the dear old soldier laid down 
his arms for the last time, and lawyer 
Bridges was very kind and considerate 
through all Kate’s troubles, saving her 
every disagreeable detail ; so that she came, 
unconsciously, to lean upon him as her 
most trusted friend and adviser, while he 
discovered that he still, now that his be- 
loved daughter had deserted him, could 
admire and enjoy the companionship of a 
young and attractive woman. 

Thus it all came about so naturally, that 
it only took time and persuasion to trans- 
form the widow Peyton into the happy wife 
— Mrs. Bridges. 

By this time the unhappy Peyton 
Claim ” had reached a settlement ; and 
Jessie and Georgia were partners in the 


WEDDING BELLS. 


237 


estate, from whicli, those two grateful 
young women settled an ‘^allowance” upon 
their beloved Aunty Frank ; but they never 
forgot, or ceased to speak with affection 
and pity of poor Willis, the unhappy heir 
of Colonel Feytons Claim. 








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